


We've Only Got 5 Days

by Floppy_salmon



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst, Blood, But like not that gruesome, Clowns, It's more towards the end of the story really, M/M, Major Character Minor Injury, Murder Mystery, No Smut, Okay I think that's really it now, Serial Killers, There's def quite a few clown mentions in here and not the happy kind, Zayn has more of a bottom vibe in this tho, because i can't write smut, but not to any main characters, it's also my first story so go easy on me, oh I forgot, there's a bit of past child abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24971635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Floppy_salmon/pseuds/Floppy_salmon
Summary: Zayn is a detective. And a bloody brilliant one at that. When a crazy serial killer starts terrorizing the random, (or not random) people of Manchester, Harry Styles gets sent down from London to help out. Zayn is set on hating him, but after a single encounter, it seems kind of impossible
Relationships: Zayn Malik/Harry Styles
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is my first story I've properly written. I wasn't really feeling inspired but now I am. I wanted to write kind of a mystery theme and this took a lot of planning out. I hope you all enjoy xx

_ The circus lights twinkled in the darkness of the night. Happy families were strolling along with their children, lining up for rides. The place was buzzing with happiness. _

_ The boy wasn't even allowed in this part of the circus. He wished he was, just for a day, to experience the fun. _

_ He didn't feel happy. _

_ He never felt happy. _

_ "What have I told you about wandering off?!" His father yelled at him, his red nose glimmering in the moonlight.  _

_ His father scared him, but his costumes always captured his eyes. Enchanting almost. _

_ "Sorry Papa," The boy whispered slowly, not wanting to get into trouble.  _

_ "It better not happen again!" The man threatened. Then, he marched back into the tent with the neon sign, still glowing bright. It read,  _ Goobers, the Clown's Magic Tricks!!!. 

_ He wished he could see some magic tricks. Maybe even learn some. But he wasn't allowed. He was never allowed to have fun. _

_ He didn't feel happy. _

_ He never felt happy. _

_ \--- _

Zayn was about 5 seconds away from punching someone. 

Okay well maybe not punching someone, but everyone in this damn coffee shop was getting on his last nerves. If there was one thing he hated more than night shifts, it was being on call. The fact that you don't even get to rest before starting a new shift really annoyed him.

Sometimes Zayn kind of wishes he could have some more time being a junior detective, with not as many responsibilities. Rationally, he knows he doesn't actually want that, and that being a detective is all that he's wanted. But right now, this sucked.

Josh, the detective who's usually on call, had taken an emergency 2 days off, leaving the others to fill in for him. Now Zayn has drawn the short straw and had to go get food for the people back at the precinct. Normally this would be an easy feat, but since it's 2:30am, the bodega that sells hot dogs right outside the station is closed so he had to drive to a proper café. 

The employee behind the counter called his name with 2 brown bags of food clutched in her right hand, a tray of coffees in the other. The machines at the precinct didn't make the best tea and coffee to put it nicely.

He grabbed the bags, murmured a quick thank you to the girl and marched out the store, a scowl visible on his face. Zayn wrapped his denim jacket a bit tighter around himself when a particular cold gust of wind flew by. It was colder than it should be nearing the end of August in Manchester, but he doesn't control the bloody weather. He threw the bags and layed the tray down on the passenger seat of his Mercedes, and sat himself down in the driver's seat, quickly turning on the heat and going towards the direction of the precinct.

He parked his car when he pulled into the lot, and grabbed his things. One of the receptionists from the bottom floor opened the door for him, and he nodded his head in acknowledgement. The elevators were already there, thank God, and he punched the button for the 3rd floor. 

The second the doors opened, Louis, his best mate and fellow detective snatched the bags of food. 

"My savior is here!!," Louis exclaimed loudly while digging through the bag. Way too loud for this hour, Zayn thought.

"Shut it Tommo, it's too early to listen to your screaming," he replied while taking a seat at his desk. "Oi, it's not my fucking fault you took 40 minutes to grab some food for like 3 people Z," Louis replied with a mouth full of one of the bagels he snatched from the bag.

"It's not my fault half the stores are closed, and I did not take 40 minutes, you liar," Zayn said half amused as he watched his friend practically inhale the bagel, following it with a long swig of tea.

He grabbed his own bagel and coffee and dug in. Just then, Amanda, their computer tech assistant came in and grabbed some food too. "You're a lifesaver Zayn, honestly I thought I was about to die of hunger," she said with an exaggerated motion of fainting. Honestly, Zayn thought, his co-workers certainly have a flair for the dramatics. 

"Ya ya, you can kiss my feet later when I'm not half asleep," He said. Louis was about to make a comment when the radio started buzzing, slightly startling them. Zayn grabbed it and listened to what was being said. 

Over the crackling, he heard a patrol officer telling them about a dead body found in the alleyway, though they said it was a very strange case. 

"What do you mean, 'strange'?" he asked. "You should just get down and here and see for yourself, it's kind of hard to describe," the officer said. With that information given, Louis and Zayn grabbed their windbreakers and got ready to leave. They took Zayn's car since Louis had a battered one.

The officer had given them an address for an alleyway that was near the outskirts of the city, and it was very obvious when they arrived at the crime scene.

Already some officers had set up caution tape and set aside anyone who was nearby. The forensics unit had already sent someone by the looks of it. When they got closer, Zayn could make out their other friend Liam, who recently got promoted in his department.

Louis went towards the officers while Zayn made his way towards the body and Liam. He looked rather puzzled where he was crouched next to the body, eyebrows knit in concentration.

"Hey Liam," Zayn greeted while also crouching down by the head of the body. It was a girl, and judging by her looks he would say she was about 20. That's not what was strange though. What was, was that there was a bright red clown nose attached to her face. To accompany that, there were 2 red circles painted on her cheeks, in a representation of clown makeup. On her neck was a yellow scarf with colourful polka dots littered across the fabric. It reminded Zayn of those scarfs people use in magic tricks to pull endless amounts of fabric out of their arm or mouth.

Besides that, the girl was in civilian clothes and there were no traces of blood on the body. What was extremely strange was the fact that there was a large bandage covering her abdomen on her left side, right under her skin. Liam had ridden up her shirt to take a look and kept on staring at it with caution, almost as if something might burst out.

"Hey Zayn," Liam spoke slowly, confusion evident on his face.

"What's the matter?" Zayn asked. Liam sighed while running his wrist on his forehead before replying. "I'm not sure if I should take off the patch, I think there might be something under it but I wanted to wait 'till you got here and took a look at the scene before I move the body," he said. 

Just then Louis came back from where he was getting information from the officers. "Hi Liam," he said before turning towards Zayn, "we already have pictures of the scene, there were only 2 people nearby and they were taking out the trash from the bars they work at. Besides that there was no suspicious activity seen by anyone." Louis stated. Zayn nodded his head, signalling he got everything. Liam let Louis observe the body and repeated what he had said to Zayn. While they caught up to speed, he left to take a look at the area to see if he could find any evidence. 

There was a road right next to the alley, though no cameras were on any of the electricity poles since it was more of a freeway. Zayn didn't see any footprints either and the ground was empty of anything useful towards the case. It looked like the killer really did a solid job of cleaning up after himself and not leaving many traces. After about 10 minutes of no luck, he made his way back towards the body to see if Liam had found anything useful. 

The lights flickered as he made his way back. Zayn put a hand on the holster that held his gun, since the vibe of this place was creeping him out. He approached his friends and watched as the forensics unit lifted up the body bag and put it in the back of the ambulance. 

"Find anything important?" Louis questioned. Zayn sighed before replying, "No, there was nothing anywhere. What about Liam, he find anything useful?" He inquired. Louis shook his head, "No, we didn't either, though he said he would try and find any fingerprints on the… accessories. Oh and he also said he didn't want to remove the bandage until he was in the lab so we'll have to wait." 

Zayn hummed and nodded his head towards the two bar owners who were standing off towards the side, signaling that they should go over there and question them. The one on the right seemed highly annoyed at being stuck here, while the other one looked nervous. He kept on wringing his hands and running them through his hair. Zayn could also make a bead of sweat running down his forehead, which seemed unusual for the weather.

"Hi gentleman, sorry for the inconvenience but we needed to take your statements," Zayn explained. "I assume someone already took your ID and residential information," He waited for them to confirm before continuing, "Can I get your names?".

The annoyed looking man rolled his eyes and answered the question, "Tony Flondike, I work at the bar 'round the corner. Which by the way I should be returning to." For someone being held for questioning, he sure is giving some attitude, Zayn thought. He stored away the name in his memory before turning towards the nervous looking man, and raised an eyebrow towards him.

"Logan Ashton, I was- uh getting gas for my car from the station down the street," He replied with a slight stutter. Zayn decided to dismiss the thought, since he just saw a dead body at this hour and having to talk to a detective can be pretty nerve wracking, even if you haven't done something.

"Did you see anything at all while you both were out, and do you recognize the body?" He questioned the two men. 

Logan speaks first, "No I filled up my tank and paid, then made my way to my car and just as I was about to come in, a police officer asked me to go with them. And now I'm here," he says.

Zayn nods and waits for Tony to speak up. 

"I was the one who found the bloody body," he gestures toward the ambulance, "Was taking out the trash when I saw a foot on the ground. Decided to check it out 'cause I didn't want no drunkies to stumble into me bar in the morning. Turns out it was a dead body so I was 'bout to call the cops when I saw one stop at the gas station. Knocked on them windows and led 'em to the body and have been waiting here to have permission to leave since." He finishes with a great sigh. 

Huh, so one of them found the body, new information.

Zayn finishes up his conversation with the two men and makes his way back to Louis, who said that they should head back to the precinct and work from there. They make their way back to his car after bidding Liam farewell.

During the drive back, Zayn can't help but think this case is going to end up with many sleepless nights for him and Louis. It's pretty obvious some psychopath killed the poor girl, judging by the way the body was displayed. He just really hopes it was a one and done type of thing, and not a serial killer on the loose. That's the last thing he wants. 

Their Captain has a tendency to usually call someone from the London Homicides team if there's a serious case, and Zayn really doesn't want to deal with them. All of them have had a tendency to take all the credit and just be general assholes. Most of them don't even help that much.

The last thing he wants is to snap at someone from a higher authority and lose his position in the case. He may not be a narcissist, but Zayn can admit he's petty to say the least. This case seems rather important and he really doesn't want to lose his position. That and Louis would never stop droning on and on about how he has left him all alone to deal with the 'the spawns of Satan himself, Zayn'.

With those thoughts in mind, he makes way towards the precinct, preparing himself for a long night.

\---

No leads. 

They have no leads so far. It's morning now and Zayn and Louis have been researching for hours, yet still they have no leads. 

So far, they've found out the victim's information. Jessica Stewart, attending Manchester University. Her major is psychology just like her parents. She has 4 siblings, all older and their family seems very strong. Perfect, you could say. She had been reported missing to a precinct just out of town, since she doesn't actually live in Manchester. Jessica is still living with her family on a large farmhouse outside the city. 

Her mother had been brought in for questioning, and had said that she was going to a club with some of her friends, but never returned home. Apparently, Jessica was still heartbroken over her ex and had been staying over at her friends for quite a while, so Ms Stewart didn't think much of it when she didn't return home. She then reported her daughter's absence the morning after her going missing which was 48 hours ago, August 12th 2020.

Besides that, there hasn't been anything interesting or eye-catching they had found to help them find the murderer. Most of it just the normal things that don't serve much purpose besides state facts both Louis and Zayn already assumed. 

There were no security cameras anywhere near the scene, and the ones by the bar had nothing useful for them. The family hadn't recognized either of the men there either.

Her ex, Aiden Grimshaw wasn't really a suspect since Jessica broke up with him. At first, Zayn was confused, since her mother had said Jessica was still heartbroken, but it turns out she broke up with him because he had too many family issues and being together was just too hard. Pretty normal couples fights really. 

Besides that, not any useful information had been found.

A bit after both of them returned from the crime scene, Jessica's parents had been called in. This was the worst part of the job in Zayns opinion. He hated telling families their loved ones are no more. 

Unsurprisingly, the family had been in hysterics. After they had calmed down a bit, Louis had gently taken their statements, and gathered the information. 

After they had left, Zayn had set up a murder board and put down all of the statements and information along with the pictures.

And here they are now, 7am in the morning, running on their umteenth cup of coffee. 

"Okay, so let's set down the basics," Zayn started, "It obviously looks like some type of psychopath killed Jessica," He said.

Louis made a noise of agreement before saying, "Yeah, almost like a serial killer, but let's hope there's no other murders."

Both of them shuddered at the thought. If it was a serial case, someone from London Homicide was bound to come down.

"There was no motive to kill her, as her family had made very clear," Zayn said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"No other suspects either. Both of the guys on the crime scene had sufficient alibis. It couldn't have been them," Louis huffed out frustratedly. 

Usually their cases had way more to go off.

Zayn took a closer look at the body's pictures and furrowed his brows, "Look at the way the murderer dressed her up though, in clown shit and a nose. That's pretty messed up, I don't think we've ever had a clown killer on the loose," He said.

"Oh yeah, that's some creepy shit. Let's hope forensics comes through with some actually usefully," Louis sighed.

Just as the sentence left Louis' mouth, Liam came through the doors of the briefing room, clutching a folder in his hand. 

"Hey lads, sorry this one took so long, it was practically impossible to find out what the cause of death was," Hey exclaimed.

Both Louis and Zayn raised their eyebrows, motioning for Liam to continue.

"It's a really weird method to kill someone. The person used a sharp icicle to stab the girl right under her ribs, puncturing her organs. I'm also assuming that they made the icicle themselves since it's not cold enough for the water to freeze by itself." Liam answered, looking at their shocked faces. 

Huh, icicles, that was new.

Liam nodded his head before saying, "Not only that, but the body had been drained of blood after she had died, there was little to no blood in her abdomen and upper legs. Real nutter, the murderer is."

Louis screwed up his face in disgust, appalled someone would go through the trouble to kill someone. 

"The time of death was around 1:30pm on August 13th," Liam added.

Zayn gave one last look to the picture in the folder before asking Liam, "Were there any fingerprints, or anything useful that you found?"

He shook his head, "No, not a trace of anything like that, the body had been washed by water and the only traces left were of dirt, which is common for people who are kidnapped," Liam answered. 

He also pulled out 3 evidence bags and handed them to Zayn. They consisted of the clown nose, scarf and a pot of paint. 

Louis raised an eyebrow of question towards the forensics doctor, silently pointing to the pot of paint. 

"It's the brand of paint used to draw the red circles on her cheek. Thought it would help you in your investigation," He said.

"Thanks Payno, at least we've got some type of information to go off now," Zayn told Liam with a thankful smile.

With that, they said their goodbyes towards Liam and turned back to the problem at hand.

Zayn took a moment to process everything Liam had told them. The murderer had used quite a unique method to kill someone. He doesn't remember ever having heard of this type of a murder method. Besides that, they had drained the body of blood, which meant that it must be somewhere.

From the rest of the evidence they have found, it seems like they know what they're doing and wouldn't just leave a pile of blood around town. For some reason, Zayn thinks they might be holding on to the blood. Call it a hunch, but it seems like something a mentally disturbed person would do. Collect it as a trophee almost. 

Louis' voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"We should probably go talk to Grimshaw, since we have no other leads to go off of," he said.

Zayn nodded and motioned for Louis to go grab his things, while he did the same.

\---

Aiden's address said that he lived in an apartment, but the area seemed highly sketchy. There were half demolished buildings littered across the roads. Old, dingy bars were also on pretty much every corner. There was a weird looking shop with a crystal ball in front of some purple curtains. The sign said something about fortune telling, but Zayn couldn't be sure since half of it was falling off. 

"Weird neighborhood for a rich girl's boyfriend to live," Zayn said.

"Yeah, his family probably doesn't give him any money," Louis told him.

Yes, that made sense. Jessica's mom had told them that Aiden had too many family issues.

A couple of men looking proper buzzed passed their car.

"Christ there's probably so many druggies living here," Zayn thought out loud.

"Maybe Aiden is too, and Jessica never told her parents about it before breaking it off with him," Louis wondered.

Zayn sighed out a soft "Yeah" before massaging his temples with the tips of his fingers. Surviving the night on nothing but shitty coffee gave him a killer headache. 

The car slowed to a stop as Louis parked his car. Both of them made their way up the rickety stairs littered with trash all the way up to the 8th floor. No elevators in sight either.

They found the correct room number and Zayn raised his hand to knock.

The door almost immediately opened, revealing a man that looked just above his 20s. His hair was dark brown sitting in a quiff. There were heavy bags under his eyes but his pupils were normal, not showing any signs of being high or drunk.

Zayn lifted his badge up to show Aiden before speaking, "Good Morning Mr Grimshaw, I'm detective Malik with detective Tomlinson. We're here for an investigation and need to ask you some questions."

Aiden's eyebrows shot up in surprise before he stuttered out a quick, "Sure."

"A body was found last night around 2:45am. It belonged to your ex girlfriend, Jessica," Zayn informed him.

Surprise etched into Grimshaw's face before he asked, "What happened?"

"She was murdered and left in an old alleyway, dressed up as a clown," Louis told him. 

Zayn took out a photo of the body and showed it to him. 

Aiden looked at the photo closely, seeming confused. He slowly shook his head and said, "That's really creepy, I have no idea what that's about."

"Her mother had told her she broke up with you 2 weeks ago due to your family issues?" Zayn questioned.

"Yeah, she did, though I'm kind of glad she did. I was going to break up with her but was too scared. When she brought the topic up, I said we should because it's too hard. I don't have much time for her and with our backgrounds, it just wasn't working," Aiden said.

"What problems did you have with your family exactly," Louis asked.

"Well my family wanted me to become a doctor. I had no interest in it and didn't really even want to go to University. Besides that, they wanted me to get married and settle down with kids right away. When I told them I don't want kids and a marriage right now, they blew up. Saying I was a disgrace and how I was living off their money, doing absolutely anything. Some things were said and they kicked me out. I was 19 so I technically didn't have to live anymore. I didn't have any money though so this was the only place I could afford. I've been picking up many odd jobs but my parents keep trying to contact me and get me to be their puppet again. Jessica was fed up with the bullshit and I didn't have time for her, so she broke up with me," Aiden finished.

Zayn quickly wrote that down into the notepad he had opened up. 

"And what were you yesterday at 1:30pm?" He asked.

Aiden didn't waste any time before answering, "I was working at the 24/7 gas station around the corner from 9am to 2pm, you can ask the manager there for confirmation if you want."

Louis and Zayn gave each other a look that said 'he didn't do it' before turning back to Aiden. 

It was Louis who spoke this time, "Thank you for your time and cooperation, if we need you for further questioning we'll call you down to the station.

With that, they nodded once towards Aiden and made their way back down towards the car.

As they turned the corner towards the gas station, Zayn spoke, "Well he definitely didn't do it. There was no motive there, and he has an alibi. Besides, why on earth would he want to kill Jessica? He seemed pretty over her."

"Yeah, but now we also have no other leads," Louis pointed out.

Oh right. They've hit a dead end. Before Zayn could focus on it too much, Louis turned into the gas station, and they made their way into the store.

\---

  
  


Zayn was currently standing in the middle of the cleaning supplies aisle of the grocery store. It's been 3 days since the body has been found and they have no other evidence to go off of. It's making him go crazy, he's barely had any time to spend at home.

Which is why he's just getting laundry detergent since he's out of it, and his clothes are running out. The store was very quiet this late at night, but not empty. 

There was a man Zayn recognized as the day janitor grabbing some weird things he does not recognize. Probably things to put in the janitors closet, he thought. 

Just as he was about to turn to leave the aisle, a man that seemed very familiar came into view. Upon further inspection, Zayn realised it was Logan, the person that was at the crime scene when Jessica's body was left.

He seemed rushed, and quickly grabbed a bunch of boxes Zayn recognized as magic erasers before lifting up many bottles of cleaning solution.

_ Huh, _ he thought. Why would someone who works as an editor for a magazine company be buying so many cleaning products, and at this time?

Almost as if sensing that someone was watching him, Logan whipped his head up, making eye contact with Zayn. All of the colour seemed to drain out of drain out of his face when he spotted the detective. 

Though it kind of made sense. Seeing the same cop who questioned you when you were near a dead body does seem kind of intimidating. 

As to not make a scene, Zayn nodded his head once towards Logan and made his way towards the cash register.

A certainly weird encounter, but he didn't think much of it. Besides, Logan had had a perfectly good alibi, so Zayns probably worried for no reason.

After shaking his head to clear his head, he drove home and tried to get a good night's rest. God knows what they'll find tomorrow.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii! I posted this a bit later than I had hoped but oh well. I just wanna say a HUGE thank you to my best friend for helping me come up with the story line and editing some of the things for me. Could not have been possible without her. Also I know like legit nothing about detectives so I'm going off knowledge I found on Google.

It's day 5 of their investigation and Zayn is close to ripping his hair out. Over the last couple days, it seems like they have interrogated everyone and their pets, but no other useful information was found. Anyone who was even remotely a suspect had perfectly good alibi's. 

Besides that, no other crimes have been committed that could potentially relate to the murder. No motives have been found either.

Zayn can't help but think back to the encounter with Logan at the store. He knows there's no reason to be suspicious since there's literally camera footage of him working at his office during the time Jessica died. 

But it was so weird how he had acted doing a simple task. He knows it was probably just nerves, but he seemed way too nervous to be buying some cleaning supplies.

  
  


Another suspicious thing. Why was he buying such specific things, and in bulk? And if his memory recalls correctly, Zayn spotted some lighter fluid in his cart, but maybe that was his sleep deprived brain playing tricks on him.

Here he is now, taking the tube home from work after another long day of finding dead ends and useless facts. It's really making him exhausted, and hopes they find something, anything tomorrow. 

There was a couple sitting right across from him, and they seemed to be arguing pretty heavily. At this point, their argument is more interesting than the last few days of work. He also kind of wishes they would shut up, so his killer headache could get some relief.

After what Zayn deemed way longer than appropriate, he got off at his stop, and made his way into the flat. Luckily every sane person was sleeping at this time, so he quietly took the elevator to the 14th floor. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he has opened his door and made his way inside. 

With his eyes half closed, Zayn took off his holster and put his gun I'm the locker dresser drawer. After quickly brushing his teeth, he stripped down to his boxers and put on a ratty old t-shirt, hurriedly climbing into bed. Eager to get a good night's rest, he passes out the second his head hits the pillow, and falls into a dreamless sleep.

That's short lived however, since the shrill noise of his phone wakes him up.

It seems as if the universe is against him lately. Zayn mentally prepared himself for the worst, before answering the phone and bringing it up to his ear.

"Malik," Zayn says groggily.

"Hi Zayn, it's Olivia. Sorry to bother you at this time but there's an emergency and they need you down there immediately," She informs him.

Olivia was Captain Higgins' personal assistant, so he assumes this has something to do with the case.

"What happened?" He sighs.

"There's been a body left exactly the way Stewart's was. Captain wanted you to head down there since it's your case." She explained sheepishly.

Zayn took a deep breath, massaging the bridge of his nose and trying to not hurl his phone at the wall- or better- smash his head against it. 

Forgetting he's on a call, he swiftly answers, "Alright, just send me the location and I'll be down as soon as possible."

"Already sent you the text, Louis should also meet you there," she says, and hangs up.

  
  
  


_ So much for sleeping my sorrows away,  _ He thought. 

Though he can't help but wonder what this means. It's obvious now that it's probably some sort of serial killer, which isn't the best news. On the bright side, hopefully they recognize some pattern that would help them find the murderer. 

Knowing he should get there as fast as he can, he changes into a black jumper, throws on a denim jacket overtop and quickly brushes his hair as best as he could. Thank God he actually did laundry this week. Grabbing his badge, holster, phone and windbreaker, he practically runs out of the flat.

In his haste to get ready, Zayn hadn't even bothered to check the time, which his phone indicates as 3:17am in a bright white font. 

  
  


The tube wouldn't take him to the correct location and his car needed an oil change, so it was currently sitting in the shop. So Uber would have to. Quickly opening the app, he hoped it wouldn't take too long.

He also had some unread messages from Louis, who probably was all supposed to meet him.

_ Don't freak out, but the Captain marked it as a serial killer case and someone from London Homicide is already at the scene… _

Great. Just what he needs. Some stuck up, arrogant, self absorbed prick walking all over their investigation not even bothering to help- Only to take all the damn credit in the end. He read the next text message before replying himself.

_ Ik it sucks but plz don't get ur panties in a bunch, u don't wanna be removed off the murder Z. _

**I'll be damed if those pricks take my fucking case.**

**How tf did they send someone down here from London so fast anyways????**

Almost immediately, the three grey dots popped up onto the screen.

_ Apparently the detective was already in London, so they just sent him down here I guess. _

__

That definitely made more sense than the weird scenarios Zayn was making up in his head.

_ Behave :) _

**Stfu u cheeky fucker**

He typed back.

**R u there already?**

_ No, I'm on my way, caught a ride with Liam. _

Sometimes he wished someone from work lived in his complex, so he could get out of driving.

Before he could send back a reply, the Uber stopped right in front of him. He hopped in the back seat and rattled off the address Olivia has given her before going back to his phone.

**Alright then, I'm on my way. See u then.**

With that, he locked his phone and tried to tame down his annoyance of this whole ordeal. 

\---

The Uber pulled up to the giant crop field, and the first thing Zayn noticed was the frenzy of cops and detectives buzzing around the grass and road. There was a giant line or caution tape stretching across the entire front of the field.

He thanked the driver and hopped out of the car, spotting Louis who was standing next to a middle aged man, and made his way over there.

He caught the last bit of the sentence the man was finishing.

"-are no cameras in the field. Didn't really think anyone would steal some vegetables." he finishes.

Louis nodded towards him and walked the remaining distance towards Zayn.

"About time you got here, there's a lot to fill you in on," Louis said.

Zayn impatiently arched an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

"The farmer who lives here called us. He said his timer for the water pipes went off during the night even though he hadn't turned it on. He went out to go turn it off anyway, thinking it was a mishap but found a body instead. It's left in the same way Jessica's was. Red cheeks, scarf around the neck, same wound, and the clown nose. But a male this time. It's a serial killer Z," He explained.

"Any witnesses or security cameras?" Zayn asked, hoping for any last clues that could potentially help them.

Louis shook his head before saying, "Nope, no one miles around the field, and the farmer lives alone too. There weren't any footprints there either."

_ Great _ , Zayn thought. Before he could voice his complaints, their Captain appeared.

"Gentleman, Detective Styles from London Homicide is here, and I want you to meet him since you will be working on the case with him." He told the two.

Styles, what a pretentious name. Zayn could already tell this character was gonna be a crooked one. 

Higgins gave him a pointed look that said 'behave'. It was pretty common knowledge that he had a distaste towards them. 

Zayn gave him a nod and followed him towards where he assumed Styles was waiting.

The first thing he saw was a tall figure with his back towards us. The captain tapped him on the shoulder and the figure turned around, revealing curly hair and a smooth face.

The flashlights from the people around them illuminated his deep green eyes. He had on a pair of black skinny jeans, a black button down with a blue print on the front, paired with a jacket that had 'London Homicide' along with 'Styles' embroidered on the front. There was a sharp jawline accompanying the softer features of his face. He had on a pair of black Chelsea boots, which Zayn found a bit ridiculous.

Even in the darkness, he could tell Styles was bloody gorgeous, which made Zayn hate him a little bit more.

The guy stretched an arm out towards him with a smile. He had dimples. Who even has dimples in real life?

He put his hand in Styles' much larger one and shook it.

He was snapped out of his inner monologue when the man opened his mouth to let out words that were delivered in a deep, slow drawl.

"Harry Styles from London, Pleasure to meet you," he said with a quirk of his mouth.

Zayn nodded curtly before saying, "Zayn Malik, senior Detective, and this is my partner Louis Tomlinson."

Harry turned towards Louis and also shook his head, introducing himself in the same manner he had done seconds ago.

"I technically wasn't supposed to come in until the morning but I wanted to get a look at the crime scene before," he explained.

_ So he was an actual detective that knows how to do his damn job,  _ Zayn said to himself.

Louis filled Harry in on the past murder and all those details, seeing that Zayn wasn't in the best of moods. Harry on his part had his notepad out and was writing down everything, while slowly chewing on his bottom lip.

Honestly, Harry looked way too young to be assigned here. Despite his tall broad frame, his facial features are rather delicate, and resemble someone that's about 20-22 years old. Though that's way too young for a senior detective, since the youngest are usually around 24.

Zayn would know, since he got promoted to his current position last year, being one of the youngest candidates to take that spot in his precinct. It's not his problem however. Why should Harry's age matter to him? It doesn't.

They continue searching all along the fields and around the houses, after taking pictures of the body.

There's something about that too. The body is laying carelessly on the ground the same way Jessica's was, but the person doesn't seem to have a resemblance to her. 

This time the body belongs to a male that seems to be in his late twenties. His blond hair seems to be full of dirt, and his clothes look rugged and scratched up. This time, there's a red scarf with colourful stars splattered across it. On his face is perched the same red clown nose and his cheeks are painted with red circles. The forensics on scene confirmed there's the same patch on his lower abdomen, so the person obviously sticks to the same methods.

After thoroughly evaluating the body, they spend the next hour checking the perimeters of the house and rustling through the grass in the field to find something, anything useful.

  
  


Most of the cops have filed out by now, and only Louis, Harry, the Captain, himself and 2 officers are present. Forensics have already taken the body back to the lab after marking the position of where it had been set.

The sun's rising now, and Zayn wants-no correction, needs- coffee in him. At this point, both him and Louis are walking talking zombies. Harry though seemed perfectly chipper. Eyebrows drawn together, one hand resting on his knees, his face portrayed seriousness.

Over the past hour, they haven't really talked much, keeping to themselves more. But it seemed as if Harry is more of a positive being than Zayn ever is or wants to be.

After every place they could think of has been searched, they head back home for a couple hours to get some sleep.

Liam, Louis and everyone else already left while Zayn was fixing an astray piece of caution tape, leaving him and Harry alone.

Now stands the problem of how he's going to get home. He could call an Uber or a cab, but this place is quite far out of town and they wouldn't get here before 20 minutes.

Right as he was contemplating calling Liam to come back and pick him up, he heard Harry's voice addressing him.

"Need a ride, detective?" He asked with a slight rasp to his voice.

Under different circumstances, he would've refused and stubbornly waited for a cab, but not today. He's tired and cold, and just wants to get some sleep before he has to come in. 

Not willing to put up a fight, Zayn releases a sigh and replies, "Yeah, that would be great thanks."

He sees Harry's lips lift up into a smile as he leads the way towards a black range rover. As he gets closer, Zayn can make out the Gucci logo on top of Harry's jeans. Of course he's rich. He probably lives in a proper house too.

They silently make their way into the car, the only noise coming from the car itself.

After telling Harry his address, they lapse into an awkward silence. He didn't have any plans to make conversation with him, but it was getting a bit too uncomfortable.

Assuming Harry has the same thought, he taps his fingers in the steering wheel before opening his mouth.

"Do you live by yourself?" He asked with a turn off his head towards Zayn.

As far as conversation starters, it was a tad creepy. But he realises they know nothing about each other so there wasn't much of an opening for Harry.

"Yeah, I live in a flat," Zayn replied with a weird hand gesture he could not reenact if asked. 

Harry gave a quick jerk of his head.

Zayn was getting rather uncomfortable so he filled in the silence.

"Are you originally from London?" He asked.

"No actually, I'm from Holmes Chapel, Chesire. Moved to London when I got promoted to Senior Detective." Harry told him.

Zayn hummed, "I'm surprised they sent someone like you down, normally we get old men that don't bother showing up." He said, regretting it a bit since it sounded like he was complimenting the curly lad.

Harry gave Zayn a meaningful look.

"That's because I requested to come here," He said.

"Why's that?"

"I'm actually planning to move to Manchester. Was checking out some places here when my boss got asked to have someone come here, so I volunteered," Harry stated.

Zayn couldn't help but get curious, "Are you switching jobs or summat?"

"No, I just wanted to be closer to home. My sister Gemma's having a baby and I didn't really want to miss out." He said with a fond grin. It seems obvious he's very close with his family.

"What about you, got any sibling?" Harry interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah, I got 3 sisters back in Bradford. One older and 2 younger." Zayn smiled. He truly loved his sisters.

Harry turned his head and gave him and beamed at him, dimples on full display.

"That's adorable! I wish I had more siblings but it's a little late now," he said with a chuckle.

The rest of the ride consisted of easy conversation where Zayn got to learn more about Harry then he needed.

Aside from his dazzling smiles, he learned that Harry was a social person. He loved making friends and was overall an extremely polite person. He also accidentally outed himself as bi when telling a story that included his ex boyfriend.

Not that Zayn cared, being gay himself.

He also kind of sucked at telling story's. Harry talked rather slowly, saying "um" about every other sentence. But it was still intriguing, no matter how bad he was at it.

He seemed to have a calm demeanor and wasn't put out by Zayn's lack of enthusiasm. Instead, he took it as a challenge to get him to open up as much as possible. Zayn, being human, had cracked under the parade of dimples sent his way, and had maken conversation here and there.

It was as they were arriving in the parking lot of his building that he realised they were both here for a  _ murder. _ Something they hadn't even discussed.

It's too late now though, so he steps out of the car and waves him goodbye, watching the black Range Rover reversing and heading back into the darkness of the night.

He takes the elevator to the correct floor and only when he's locked his flat door does he realise something. 

He had told himself that Harry was a pretentious prick, but within 30 minutes, that couldn't be further from the truth.

So maybe he had overreacted with hating Styles just because he's sent here to help him with a case. It's not often he admits he judged someone too early, and even less common to do it out loud to someone. 

_ At Least now it will be easier to work with him,  _ Zayn thought while hanging his gun holster. Though heaven forbid he'll indulge Louis in this specific bit of information. That fucker would never stop teasing him about being so obviously wrong.

He pushes all these thoughts out of his mind and strips down to his boxers for the second time that night. Not even bothering to put on a sleep shirt, he flings himself into bed and wraps the duvet around himself, trying to fall asleep as quickly as possible. He only has 3 hours to sleep, and over his dead body will that time be taken away from him.

It wasn't such a hard feat after all, the day's exhaustion weighing down on him. Zayn's out like a night within a few minutes and that's all he could ask for.

There's a serial killer to catch, after all.

\---

The next morning, Zayn walked into the precinct 30 minutes late, with a large cup of coffee, flat hair and bags under his eyes.

He clumsily hung up his bag on the back of his desk chair, and plopped down rather aggressively. Looking around, he wondered where Louis was so they could get started on the case.

Right then, he and Harry walked out of the break room, Louis holding a file in his hand.

During the night, he hadn't gotten the full look of Harry, but now in the day lighting, it was obvious he was absolutely gorgeous. His curls sitting in a slight quiff, skinny jeans that look painted on, black button up with the top 3 buttons undone.  _ Is that even allowed?  _ Zayn thought.

The deep green of his eyes was much more vibrant in the harsh office lighting, and his lips looked the perfect shade of pink.

It seemed that they spotted Zayn, making their way towards him.

"Morning Zed," Louis said dejectly, not caring if his partner was late.

Zayn scoffed, "Not a great one, it seems," he said.

"Well we haven't really found anything useful," Harry chimed in.

"So you found other things?" Zayn questioned, waiting for them to fill him in.

Louis dramatically cleared his throat before listing all the information they had gathered about the previous murder.

"Carl Jones, lives alone in Manchester. CGI artist that works for Marvel Studios. No relationship. 3 siblings, 2 younger sisters and an older brother. Was not reported missing but was last in contact with his mom at around 9am on August 18th. Forensics file said that the time of death was also the 18th around 3:34pm. Cause of death was also the same icicle method performed on Jessica. Bruises were found on the body, indicating signs of struggle. Body was also drained of blood and no fingerprints were found on any materials of evidence." He said.

Zayn picked up on the dates, "So there's a pattern, he kills someone every 5 days and leaves the body the day after."

Harry nodded his head, "Yup, we've already added that to the board, but we don't know if this is something being done in a fit of rage, or if there's a reason as to why he's targeting seemingly random people. We also don't know if he'll strike again" He pointed out, Zayn watching his lips move.

"Yeah about that, are there any similarities at  _ all _ between the victims?" Louis asked.

Zayn looked up from the files he was going through, shaking his head, "None that we see. So far both of them have siblings, no criminal background, and had some sort of job in the past year."

Harry thoughtfully looked at the pictures of the bodies from where he was perched on the edge of Zayn's desk, " Maybe we should dig through the archives and see if there's anything useful we can find there," he suggested.

Not having any better ideas, Zayn shrugged and said "Fuck it, let's see if you're actually useful Styles."

Harry sent a smirk towards him, "I'm useful in more ways than one, Malik," he said, giving a subtle once over of Zayn.

He couldn't stop the slight flush from rising into his cheeks because  _ okay _ , they're flirting now like it's normal. He can't help but enjoy it though. Louis gave him a serious look when Harry was turned around, his eyes saying ' _ what are you doing?' _

And to answer that, well he didn't know what he was doing. All he did know was that there's a killer they need to catch, and if it brought along a handsome bloke, who's he to complain about?

\---

Zayn doesn't remember the last time they had scourged the file room, researching most things on the computer. Regardless, it was more entertaining than expected. Him and Harry were working through the far corner of the room while Louis looked through recent files. 

Harry-despite looking determined- did end up having somewhat of a laugh with Zayn and Louis. It's not exactly their fault that they can't keep their sarcastic comments at bay, and he had found them rather amusing.

At one point, Zayn had banged his head kind of hard on one of the shelves and Harry looked awfully concerned for a minor injury. Still, Zayn couldn't help but find it endearing.

It turns out they didn't waste 2 hours on useless research.

They had found a case file that was written 2 years ago about a man named Richard Carter who had started threatening people within the ages of Jessica and Carl. He would chase them wearing a clown suit, scaring them back to their houses for no apparent reason.

At first the threats were measly, like telling them he'll randomly call the cops and saying he'll trash their lawn. Then, after a while he started turning more gruesome, saying things like he'll chop up their bodies or kill their entire families.

He was taken into questioning after numerous complaints and reports. It seemed that he had some mental health issues and had been prescribed medication, along with a restraining order between him and the people he taunted. As of now, no one had kept checking up on him and his whereabouts are not known.

It's not much, but it's a lead that could potentially help them find the murderer.

After grabbing all the information they could about Richard, they made their way towards Louis and Zayns desk to have a more open place to work. 

"Should we work through our lunch break? I could order some food here," Harry suggested looking towards Zayn.

"Yeah, that works for me," he replied honestly. It wouldn't be the first time he would've skipped his break.

Harry smiles at Zayn, and pulls out his phone, "Chinese sound good?" he asks.

"Perfect actually, but please get chowmein. Last time this one forgot," Zayn says with a glare towards Louis while Harry orders from the place down the street.

"Oi, it's not my fault you didn't tell me what you wanted, princess!" he defended himself.

Zayn scoffed, "It's fucking chinese, you cheese puff. Who the fuck doesn't remember chowmein when getting chinese?!" He exclaimed.

"Don't call me a cheese puff, you donut roll"

"Donut roll? That's not a fucking thing Lou"

"Shut up"

"You shut up"

Louis rolled his eyes, "What a great fucking comeback Zed, really"

"I think all comebacks should be appreciated," Harry intervened.

"Comeback", Zayn couldn't help but giggle at the  _ comeback _ talk. Inside he's secretly a 12 year old. 

Harry turned to him and rolled his eyes, "Real fucking mature Zayn."

And  _ ok,  _ he kind of liked the way his name rolled off of Harry's tongue. His deep, gravely voice made it sound huskier. 

Quickly getting rid of thoughts he should not be having, he mutters another weak, "shut up."

Banter comes easy for the next couple of minutes before Harry's phone buzzing interrupts them. 

"Food's here," he announces.

Louis, being the childish one yells out, "Nose goes!"

Harry, like he was waiting for his moment, quickly touched his nose, leaving Zayn to go down.

He got up grumbling about the unfairness of that stupid game, making his way towards the elevator.

He could still make out the noise of Harry and Louis laughing at him, and he can't help but think Harry fits in here. 

He noticed that the doors to the lift weren't closing, and only then did he notice the sign that read 'on service'.

Making his way outside of it, he heads towards the stairwell, flipping off the other two who had resumed laughing.

The hallway lights were broken and before he could open the door, Zayn noticed something moving. Upon further exception, it was only their now janitor that had moved here this month. He often forgot about the guy since they were rather close with the previous janitor. But who's he to judge? The person does clean the dirty precinct for a living so it's natural he doesn't really want to engage with the culprits.

Quickly going down the flights of stairs, he opens the door and goes out the front doors, only to be met with a flash.

After recovering from the temporary blindness, he turned his head to look at the face of who was probably the most annoying person on earth.

Nick Grimshaw, news anchor that was notorious for bothering the detectives during cases took another flash, seeming happy to have spotted Zayn. He was always at crime scenes that had been revealed to the public, making everyone's job more difficult.

"It seems you've got a new serial killer on the loose detective, can I get a quote?" He asked with a smirk.

Zayn refrained himself from giving him the bird and telling him to shove the quote where the sun doesn't shine.

"I'm afraid all information is confidential right now Grimshaw," he replied with every ounce of patience he could muster.

Nick's smirk deepened, "Or maybe you just don't have anything. You're obviously so bad at your job they had to send you help from  _ London _ ." He said in an innocent tone that made his blood boil.

_ Fuck _ , how had they caught wind of that? 

"You know what, you're on the precincts property, so if you don't wanna get arrested move the fuck along," he snarled.

It seemed Nick was happy with the outburst he had caused, since he silently left, the smirk still plastered on his face. The nerve of that absolute fucker.

Trying to calm himself, he turns towards the delivery guy who's standing awkwardly towards the side. They both look at each other briefly before Zayn takes the bag of food, thanks the guy and goes in the direction of the doors.

The second he steps foot in the building, he almost collides with someone. Curse his luck to leave him to deal with so many awkward encounters in one day.

After regaining balance, he sees that the man was the janitor he had previously seen. He was holding what seemed to be 2 giant empty bottles of some sort of liquid, probably to throw them out.

Murmuring a quick sorry, he makes his way back upstairs. 

He set down the bags right in front of Harry and he beamed in response for no apparent reason. He had learned that Harry was just like that. Always a smiling, happy bundle of energy. Despite that though, he is professional when needed to be. Zayn still has no idea if he can be intimidating though, since he's always positive. 

Taking a seat and looking through the bag for the little carton of heaven-more commonly known as chow mein- he takes a minute to relax before diving right back into work. Looking around, he wonders where Louis went and was just about to ask the other detective when he spotted his partner walking out of the Captains office. 

Judging from his facial expressions, something bad must have happened. Zayns curiosity peaks, and he was just about to ask Louis what happened when Harry beat him to it.

"Everything alright, Louis?" He says with a worried tone to his voice.

"Um yeah, kind of."

Zayn arched an eyebrow, "Elaborate."

Louis sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, "Umm… do you remember that huge drug bust some of the other detectives were about to do?"

Zayn hums an affirmative.

"Well it didn't go so great. They didn't surround the perimeters properly and let the guys get away with most of the drugs. Captain was furious and after a bit of research, it seems it could lead to a whole mafia gang. It's a really big case Z, and I kind of got put on it," he explained.

Looking at the shocked expression on Zayns face, he hurriedly adds, "But they only moved me because Captain doesn't trust anyone else, and besides you've got Harry and it's not even my case!"

Zayn sighs, finishing his mouthful of noodles, knowing it's not Louis' fault. It sucks he won't be able to help but it  _ is  _ Zayns case, and Harry's now too. 

"It's okay Louis, it's not your fault you got moved," Harry voiced his thoughts. "And besides, I'm sure me and Zayn will be able to solve this, no?" He added with a nudge to Zayn's arm.

Louis smirked, "I'm sure, now excuse me lads, I've got to start working on this straight away. Zayn, try not to miss me so much, Harry's here to keep you company," He said with a wink.

It was then he decided he was going to strangle Louis in his sleep. It wouldn't be too hard to hide the body, he's a detective after all.

\---

After some digging, they were able to find the address of Richard after making some phone calls.

He had moved out of his place that was written in the files, but one of his niece's phone numbers was still the same. After calling her and finding out he had moved into a farmhouse, Harry had pulled in some favors from a friend back in London, which game then a current address.

Now, -the next day- they're suiting up, putting on bulletproof vests and making sure they've got enough bullets. It's been a long time since he's been in the

field with someone new and he can't help but worry just a tad. Harry is a great detective, Zayn had figured that much out in a couple hours, but he still doesn't know how he acts in times of surprise.

He turns towards Harry, "Do you want to sneak inside the residence or bust in?"

Harry smirked, "Let's bust in, Richard will probably be more shocked rather than run away," he explained.

"Works for me."

They made their way downstairs where the other cops were waiting as backup, and starting filing into cop cars when Harry told them to. 

It was different seeing Harry like this. During the past 2ish days, he had learned a lot about his personality, since he was a very open person. The kind eyes, and the soft features of his face were now set in a serious posture. He looked determined, and Zayn felt a bit of reassurance knowing Harry knows how to handle these situations.

They seemed to have an unspoken agreement about taking Harry's car to the house, and Zayn is now sitting inside his car for the second time in the last 2 days. Not that he's complaining. The Range Rover  _ is  _ much nicer than his old Mercedes. And who's he to decline the offer to not drive? 

There was a silence settling around the atmosphere as Harry took off driving, but unlike last time, this once was more comfortable. 

Thinking back to the case, he knows there's not a 100% chance of their killer striking again, but he wants to catch whoever it is before any other casualties take place. It's also been a while since they've had a serial killer so Zayn hopes he's not losing his touch.

His thoughts fizzled out as the house that was under Richards name appeared into their line of sight.

They both marched out of the car, Zayn signalling their backup to take position. On the count of three, Harry and himself were to knock the door open, preferably with the least amount of damage possible.

Harry lifted 3 of his fingers, gun ready, and slowly dropped them one by one. 

When he put down the last one, both of them pushed open the door and the shrill sound of a gunshot rung in his ears.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll post another chapter by next Sunday or Monday and hopefully not later than that. Kudos are appreciated!


	3. Not an update

Hii this is not an update. I don't know if anyone is following my story yet but this chapter isn't turning out that great. I've rewritten it a couple times and am just working on fixing it. update will be late this week. I'll try to post it up before friday!


	4. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! Sorry again for the late update. Not totally happy with this chapter but bare with me 😂

The sound was deafening in the otherwise silent room, and Zayns fight mode was instantly up. He whipped his head towards the direction of the sound, spotting a young looking man that was definitely not Richard holding a gun pointed towards them, appearing to be around 20. He shakily dropped his gun when realising he had shot at authorities. The man's face portrayed pure panic, and Zayn assumed he was in some sort of shock. He was a couple feet away from them and Harry didn't waste a second before surging forward and handcuffing him, reciting his rights.

Zayn quickly spun around making sure no one had gotten hit by the bullet, revealed it had just whizzed by. So maybe they had gotten the right person.

That still doesn't explain why there's a random man in Richard's house, holding a gun. With many questions running through his head, he waited for Harry to hand the man to the other officers before they made their way deeper in the house.

They turned the corner and went inside the first open door on their left. There, lay the body of Richard, 2 bullet wounds visible in his abdomen. Putting the pieces, Zayn assumes the guy at the front of the house had killed Richard for some unknown reason and had gotten frightened when they barged into the house, resulting in him firing at them.

Harry hurriedly put his fingers on Richards neck where his pulse is located before turning to Zayn.

"He's dead," he sighed.

Not having anything better to say, Zayn gave Harry a frustrated look before he grabbed his gloves and told Harry to call the forensics. He started searching the house, hoping for anything that could help them.

After not finding anything in the other bedrooms, Zayn picks the lock on the only locked door in the house to reveal a home office. Something important must have been in here for it to be locked.

Riffling through the loose papers, his eyes caught on a sleek black folder that looked out of place in such a messy drawer. 

After pulling it out and opening it, he realised it's a will. Someone from the Carter's family, according to the last name of the man.  _ Micheal Carter _ , it read. Quickly reading through the names below, he realises the document belongs to Richards dad.

There's also pictures accompanying each person and his eyes instantly catch on one of them. That's him. The same guy who seemingly shot Richard and just got arrested. It seems that the guy was Micheal's grandson, and Richard's nephew.

They didn't have a lot of information on Richard's family so all of this was a bit of a surprise for Zayn, but definitely useful. Before he could read the rest of the will, Harry walks through the door.

"The forensics have taken the body, and we finished searching the rest of the house," he says before nodding towards the file in Zayn's hand, "What's that?"

"It's a will of Richard's dad, and the guy's in here too, check it out," he says.

Harry walked the remaining steps in the room, standing right next to Zayn looking over his shoulder.

It was then he caught a whiff of him, the sweet smell. Being this close to him, Zayn could feel him breathing down his neck while he read the file. Harry smelled like citrus, and flowers, and Zayn was rather pleased with the waft. 

He's not a boy anymore though, and has a lot more control over himself which is why there was no creepy sniffing taking place.

"So he was to get Richard's portion if he were to die," Harry flips a page, reading the part Zayn hadn't gotten to.

"That gives him a clear motive to kill him," Zayn says.

Harry's face screwed up in concentration, "Yeah but this has absolutely _ nothing  _ to do with our case," he sighs, "we were just at the right place at the right time."

Zayn shared that frustration that was radiating off of Harry, "how about we send this in to the other detectives who showed up and go back to our investigation?" He suggests.

His features relax a bit before nodding and following Zayn out the door with the file. 

Back to square one.

\---

Turns out the man had shot Richard. His name was Kyle Carter, and had instantly confessed in the interrogation room. It's obvious he was extremely anxious, and like many others had cracked and told the truth. Zayn was right, he  _ was  _ after the money. Richard's dad had recently died and Kyle was a broke University student with a track record of drugs. Desperation led to him killing Richard since no one was in contact with him. The bullets found in his body also matched to the gun Kyle was holding. 

All of that had no correlation to their serial killer. Richard has no other records of terrorizing anyone, and also has alibis during the times of death. As Harry had put it, they were just simply in the right place at the right time.

Day 2

The next day they were back in the precinct but it was late at night and they were just about to pack up and head home. Harry had set up at Zayns desk, laptop propped up on the edge. They were going through all the evidence and information collected trying to put together a pattern. Earlier in the day both of them had taken another look around the crime scene, seeing if there was something they missed, but to no avail. After coming up empty handed, they returned to the precinct, back 

the murder board.

Over the past 2 days Zayn noticed just how easy it was for them to work together. Most of the time, Zayn didn't even need to say out loud what he was thinking for Harry to understand him, and the same goes for him. He learned that Harry preferred to look at visuals and was never opposed to repeating things they have already done. He thinks that this is what makes Harry a great detective. The fact that he doesn't get deterred from his path.

Despite some differences in their working habits, it doesn't change the fact that they just  _ click _ . Louis is the only other person Zayn has been able to have a connection to, and that was after spending their time in the academy together. Don't get him wrong, Zayn trusts everyone he works with to have his back, but it's different with Harry. It hasn't been that long for him to feel that way, but it just is.

A melody carrying through the air snaps him back to reality. Harry's phone is ringing and he sees the name 'Niall' flash across the screen.

Harry's lips quirk up in a fond, half smile, "Excuse me," he tells Zayn.

Answering his phone, he goes to the window by the break room, instantly laughing at something the person on the phone says.

It's the first time Zayn has seen him fully laughing, and it was quite a sight. The dimples in his cheek pop and his nose scrunches up with delight. Harry's eyes seem brighter than before, and his shoulders seem loose

Zayn wonders who it is on the phone that can make him so relaxed in seconds.  _ Maybe it's his boyfriend, _ he thinks. It wouldn't be that much of a surprise, Harry's a catch. 

Realising that he's staring, he turns his head back towards the computer where too many tabs are open. He catches the end of their conversation though.

"No please for the love of God don't use the oven," He says, "we'll order takeout, I'd like to have our flat in one piece thanks."

A couple of seconds later, he barks out a laugh, "I love you too, Niall. Bye," he sing songs into the phone.

Zayn acts aloof, but his curiosity is rising. Was that like a friendly love you, or  _ love  _ love? He's definitely said that to many of his friends countless times, but there's also a good chance Harry was talking to a significant other.

It's not that he's jealous-he has no reason to be- but Zayn has always been rather curious. You could blame it on his detective instincts, but he always tries to obtain any and all information, investigation or not. 

Despite that, he's not the most open person. It takes a while for him to get comfortable enough around people to actually engage in conversation other than small talk. He's not shy per say, but just doesn't like to open himself up to people who either don't care, or will leave without a word.  _ That's _ something he doesn't want to experience again. He's not mentally unwell though. Not someone who feels the need to completely shut other people out. He knows how to socialize with other people, in and out of work, but he's just careful. It doesn't hurt anyone to be careful, past scars proof that.

In the short days he's gotten to know Harry, it's clear he's a very kind and friendly person. A type of friend Zayn wouldn't mind having . Harry seems like the type of guy to offer any advice, help you through hard times, or have a shoulder to cry on in a heartbeat. A very expressive person, Zayn's noticed. 

That's kind of why he's so curious about Harry. Because he wants to see if it's all an act, or if he's genuinely a good person he can add to his small list of close friends.

Right now though, his focus is on solving these murders, hopefully before another one. If that's all sorted than many he can figure out more about Harry. Until then, he wants to keep his relationship between them completely professional. He's getting way too many creepy vibes from their killer, and doesn't want to be distracted and miss something. 

Realising Harry's back from the corner and has taken a seat in his chair, Zayn sends him a quick smile before turning back to the computer. He has an urge to ask who he was talking to but refrains himself. It seems Harry must have picked up on it though, since he answers the question.

"Sorry, that was my best mate Niall," Harry says, "He actually lives in Manchester, I'm supposed to move in with him eventually so that's where I'm staying right now," he explains.

Zayn gives a light chuckle, "Niall sounds like trouble."

It's only after the sentence has been said that he realises it gives away the fact that he was listening in to their conversation. Harry doesn't seem to notice this though.

"Yeah not the most gifted at cooking," he laughs.

"Is he a detective as well?" Zayn questions.

Harry looks positively horrified at the thought, "Oh god no, Niall would actually faint at the sight of blood. He's a music teacher at an elementary school."

"I actually wanted to be an English literature teacher when I was little," he tells him.

Harry smiles, "You know, I can see it. You definitely have the professor aura."

Zayn gives a half serious scoff, "Thank you for the input, Harry, it means  _ so _ much."

Harry giggles, honest to god,  _ giggles.  _ Who knew such a childish being was trapped inside a man's body.

Zayn laughs as well before a noise on his computer alerts him. Turning to it, he sees that it's an email from one of the analogists he had been in contact with. He clicks it and quickly reads over the information. It says that the clown noses found on the victims were identified to be made with a certain material only one market sells. Apparently, it's a little outdoor kiosk market that sells handmade circus accessories. He can't believe such a place exists.

That means the killer had researched these things, and there might be someone working at the market who could help them. 

He looks at Harry, "I think I've got something."

"What is it?"

He motions for Harry to read the email. His eyes focus onto the screen, lips silently moving as he realises what it says.

"That means our killer obviously looked into this stuff before finding his victims," he says, "We can check the place out tomorrow, maybe we'll find something," Harry finishes with a hopeful grin.

Zayn returns it, "I think there's something there."

"Please don't jinx our one good lead," he jokes.

Zayn cracks another smile just to humor Harry. This isn't the first bad joke he's made in the past 2 days.

"We'll go first thing tomorrow," he says.

"I can pick you up if you want," Harry offers.

Zayn nods, "Do you remember my address?"

"Yeah I do, is 9am okay?"

"Sounds good. We should actually also go home now, the office is pretty much empty," Zayn says with a look around.

Truthfully, he doesn't actually need a ride. His car got fixed a while ago, but why turn down a free ride? They're both going to the same place, and it makes much more sense to just take one car.

Harry starts to pack up his things, Zayn following suit. They grab their bags and walk towards the finally fixed elevators together. Zayn released a yawn, just now realising how tired he is. Who knew going through files could be so exhausting?

The crisp night air welcomed them the second the front doors opened. Both of them reflexively tightened their coats, Zayn shuddering lightly. Harry’s car was parked right near the front, and Zayn wonders how he got such a good spot. He’s lucky if he gets a spot in the front lot at all. 

Harry takes out his keys and unlocks his car, calling out a ‘ _ goodbye’ _ over his shoulder to Zayn, who waves back at him before walking to his car. 

The roads are mostly clear, the majority of the people already home. While stuck at a particularly long red light, he sees something out of the corner of his eye. He squints his eyes to see a bit better in the darkness, and the thing seems like a clown perched on the front lawn of one of the houses to the left. Zayn can make out the hat and the red and white face paint covered by the costume. He’s instantly on high alert, making sure his gun in his holster before turning on the road, speeding towards the correct house. As he nears the house though, he realises there’s not a threat. It’s a decorative clown statue with streamers and empty tables around it. It was the aftermath of a kid’s party, and the parents had left the decorations outside. 

Zayn calms down a bit, sighing and directing his car back towards home. Normally, he would never blink an eye towards something like that, but ever since the first murder, everthing has been putting him on extra alert. Not only that, but he admits he’s also a bit scared. It’s not abnormal, but he’s a bit ashamed a serial killer has scared a detective. Zayn doesn’t remember the last time a murderer has genuinely scared him, even a little. But there’s something about this one that just doesn’t sit right with him. Shaking his head, he pulls into the parking lot of his apartment building.

He quickly makes his way into the flat, locking the door. Zayn makes quick work in the bathroom before changing into his night clothes and climbing under the duvets.

He realises his home has been a lot more quiet the last few months. There's no one at home to greet him, or someone to just cuddle with when he's feeling down. He's thinking about getting a pet, something to fill the silence, but he's not sure if there's enough time for him to take care of one. Work had him so busy-even before this case- that he can't remember the last time him and the lads had gone down to a bar or pub for a pint. 

Louis says he needs to get laid, but Zayn doesn't think so. It's not that he's still torn up about his ex (who was a douchebag, by the way). It's just that ever since Luke broke up with him, he has been very careful with himself. Not getting attached to anyone too quickly, or setting his expectations really high. He still believes in love, Zayn's still open to relationships, but the hope that he'll actually find someone has been dulled down. 

Him and Luke had been together for 3 years, and he had moved in together. Zayn had given him everything, his home, trust and love. From day one, he had expressed himself fully and was eager to share everything about himself. After about 2 years, he thought Luke was it. He could picture himself owning a house with him one day, with kids and all. A proper family.

A few months prior though, 3 years into their relationship, he had noticed Luke leaving earlier than his job required and returning late at night. He didn't think much of it because he trusted Luke and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but everything was clear one night. Zayn had told him he would be staying late at the precinct due to a tough interrogation, but the guy had confessed much earlier than they had expected.

That night, when he opened his door to the flat, the first thing he noticed was a pair of heels laid on the front mat. When he opened the door to their bedroom, the first thing he noticed are two naked bodies tangled in the covers, one of them belonging to a nameless girl, and the other one was his own boyfriend. 

Looking back on it, Zayn had handled the situation pretty well, all things considered. He had asked Luke to grab his shit and leave in an eerily calm voice, and then kicked the girl out. He had expected Luke to most likely beg for forgiveness, or make up some bullshit excuse, but he never did. Instead, he acted like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. The last thing Like said to him as he walked out the door was, "You were just a good fuck after all."

The second the door slammed shut, Zayn breaked, crumpling into the couch as tears lined his face. He had called Louis, who had come over asap, and had held him while he cried for the whole night. Ever since then, he had closed himself up just a little bit towards new people, for fear of getting hurt, and had stuck to his small circle of friends.

Looking back over everything now though, Zayn thinks it's time he changed that.

\---

  
  


The toaster once again scares Zayn as it pops up, alerting him that his toast is ready. He was currently eating breakfast, waiting for Harry to show up so they could head to the kiosk booths. Zayn was currently on his 2nd cup of coffee, feeling unusually tired.

He had dressed in pretty normal clothes. A grey tank top with an open black button up layered upon it, matched with white trainers and black skinny jeans. Today, he had left his hair product free, soft to the touch and feathery. It wasn't meant to be very cold today, so he had set out a bomber jacket to wear over top of his clothes. 

He had been texting his sisters most of the morning, talking about this and that. His mom had also been asking him to pop around home for a visit, but Zayn hasn't had any time off to go to Bradford. He still calls her mother everyday though, a habit he tries not to break. As for his sisters, they seem content with daily texts that mostly consist of silly gifs and calls a couple times a week.

He checks the time and grabs his things before going downstairs to the lobby, deciding to wait here instead of having Harry call him down. It seems he doesn't have to wait long, because in a couple of minutes he sees a black Range Rover pulling up with a curly headed man sitting in the driver's seat.

  
  


"Good morning," Harry greets.

"Hey Harry," Zayns replies, looking at him briefly before doing a double take to look at the sheer black shirt he's wearing.

"Aren't you cold?" He questions with shock.

Harry on his part seems confused, "What are you talking about? It's warm today!" He says.

Zayn shakes his head. If Harry wants to shiver to death, then that's his problem.

"Do you have the address?" Harry asks.

Zayn fumbles with his phone finding the address, completely forgetting Harry has no idea where they're meant to go. The location was about 20 minutes south, and he put it into the GPS in the car. 

Soon enough, they were finding a parking spot and heading towards the ground full of kiosks. They all looked a bit creepy, stocked with circus accessories and random clown costumes. He had expected something more childish, but these items were all eerie and dark. There was almost no colour, and if there was, it was red. What's more confusing is that the people behind the stands seem overly cheerful which doesn't match the vibe of this place.

Harry and Zayn both looked at each other with confusion and shrugged. They  _ were  _ in a clown market, what else did they expect? They walked toward the first booth to their right, which was just a bunch of black and white clown masks. There was a middle aged man standing with a bright smile. 

He opened his hands in what they assumed was a friendly gesture, "Welcome! Welcome! My name's Giovani. What missing piece of your soul are you here to find today, good sirs?"

Both of them were a bit surprised by the statement, and slightly confused. Giovani must've noticed that, since he started talking again.

"Oh that's alright," he chuckled, "I am here to be your guide, to dig out your inner feeling, to open your souls, to-"

"Okayyyy, I think that's enough of that," Harry interrupts, though judging by his facial expressions, he was rather amused. Zayn has a feeling everyone here is just as loony as this guy.

"I'm Detective Styles, and this is Detective Malik. We're here for an investigation," he informs him.

Zayn grabs the evidence bag from his pocket that contains the clown nose and holds it up, "Do you make these here?"

Giovani enthusiastically nods, "Oh everyone here makes red clown noses!" He says, "Though I'm not sure if I made that particular one. My aura can't seem to judge it correctly," he scratches his chin thoughtfully.

It was clear that it would be difficult to get a straight answer out of him. Zayn really hopes the other people here are more normal since it seems like they will have to question everyone.

Harry retrieved the 2 pictures of Jessica and Carl, and showed them to Giovani.

"Do you know either of these people?" He asks.

Giovani's face contorts in horror as he lets out a strangled sound, "Oh my days!"

Harry and Zayn look at each other with alarm, "What is it?" Zayn questions.

"They're spirits are in pain! Poor things were not able to find their souls correctly before they died. Shame, oh what a shame!" Giovani shrieks.

Harry and him both deflate, kind of annoyed by this guy's antics.

"So you  _ don't _ know them?" Harry pushes. 

"No, never seen them," he says before brightening up with a hopeful smile, "But I  _ do  _ know what to do to help their spirits, if you like I can offer you some items!"

Harry and Zayn both shake their heads quickly, "No no no no, that's quite alright, thank you for your help," Zayn says before grabbing Harry by the arm and motioning for him to walk away before Giovani can come up with some other nonsense.

They give each other bizarre looks, "complete nutter, he was," Harry murmurs.

"Brace yourself, everyone else seems like him too." Zayn warns him. They go to the next booth in hopes to find something.

And so it goes, from kiosk to kiosk, the people working there were weirder and weirder. A man tried to convince them to switch souls because he thought that would help them in their investigation. He then proceeded to do enchantments to summon the spirit world. Harry and Zayn had taken the chance to quietly slip away and burst into laughter once they were a safe distance away from the ' _ voodoo man'.  _ Harry had come up with the name and Zayn didn't have the heart to tell him that it sucks. 

None of them had any answers either so far. They also don't keep a track record of who buys what, so so far, nothing has been helpful to them.

Approaching the last booth, both of them had lost hope of finding anything from here. Still, they asked the man,(who didn't seem loony) their questions and showed him the pictures of the bodies. He didn't recognize them but had taken the bag containing the nose and held it closer to his eye level.

The man's eyes widened in recognition, "Oh I definitely made that, there's a little hole in the top that only I add."

Zayns face lit up with excitement, "Has anyone bought a couple of these in the last 10 days?"

The man nodded, "I had only set up my booth one time in the last 2 weeks. Only one guy bought anything. He bought 12 of them and waited around here for about 10 minutes before leaving."

Zayn had quickly written all of that down in his notepad, not wanting to miss a single detail.

"Did you talk to him at all?" Harry asks.

"Yes actually, he randomly started talking to me," he squints his eyes trying to remember, "he said something about how he had bought a warehouse on Piccadilly street, south something."

"Do you remember what he looked like?"

The man shook his head, "he was wearing a baseball hat."

"When did he come here?"

"He came here about 9 days ago," he says.

Harry looked at Zayn, "That could be where he kept Jessica and Carl," he said excitedly in a whisper.

They took the man's name, address and phone number before going back to the car and heading to the precinct. They added the new information to the murder board which was set up in the briefing room at the moment. Once they had finished that, Harry opened his laptop and looked up warehouses at the address Dermot (the last guy at the market) had given them. There seemed to be only one at the correct location. The only problem was that it was a half broken building. There was a high risk warning on it, indicating that it was not safe to enter. 

Harry sighed frustratingly, "There's no  _ chance  _ your Captain will let us go there."

Zayn hummed, "Well what if we… don't tell him?" He says slowly with a look.

"What, you're going to lie to your Captain?" He asked rather loudly.

Zayn quickly shushed him, "Listen, this might be our chance to get this guy. He probably chose that building because he knew no one would let us go there" he reasons, "And didn't you hear the guy, he bought 12 noses, which means he's planning more murders."

Harry seemed on edge about whether to agree or not, but Zayn knew this was their chance to get their guy. They might not get another one.

"Come  _ on _ , Harry," he pleaded.

Harry exhales loudly, "I'll totally regret this later but, fine. We can go."

Zayn barely resists punching the air. Truthfully, he would've gone without Harry if he didn't agree, but he really didn't want to. This isn't the first time he went against protocol for a case, and probably won't be the last.

They had to report to the Captain today, so they decided to go tomorrow.

That came soon enough, and here they were, quietly grabbing the bulletproof vests before sneaking them out to Harry's car. The warehouse was in the middle of what looked like nowhere on the GPS, and Harry looked like he was second guessing himself.

"Let's go before someone sees us," Zayn said.

Harry sighed for what seemed like the tenth time today, "Bloody hell, this is not going to end well."

Zayn smiled, "There's only one way to find out, mate."

  
  
  
  



	5. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii sorry for the late chapter, I kinda forgot to write. I'll update again soon!

The car slowed to a stop right next to an old looking shed. The warehouse was up the road and to the left, with nothing but dirt roads surrounding it. Zayn's very happy they didn't take his car. The poor things tires would be wrecked. 

There were obvious cracks present in the walls of the building, bushes growing on the sides. It seemed really old and worn out, and there was a chunk of the roof broken off. There was _no way_ they would've been allowed to bring backup here, but Zayn had a feeling this had something to do with their murderer and he couldn't let that go. 

Harry opened his phone and instantly frowned, "there's no service out here."

That made it all the more suspicious. But it also worried him a tad. What if something happened and they weren't able to contact anyone?

"Maybe we should bring in the walkie talkies with us," Zayn suggested.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "I thought we were supposed to keep this inquiry a secret."

Zayn shrugged sheepishly, "Yeah but something _could_ go wrong. I don't wanna die out here."

"If you think this could kill us, why are we here exactly?"

"Instincts," Zayn replies firmly.

Harry sighed, "Your 'instincts might get us in a whole lotta trouble, mate," he says with doubt.

Zayn was a little annoyed. He knows him and Harry haven't been working together for that long, but the amount of trust he has in Zayn (or lack thereof) is a little hurtful. Harry's an experienced Detective, he should know that sometimes you have to break some rules to solve cases. If he was in Harry's place, Zayn would be a little less resentful, but you can't win 'em all.

Zayn rolled his eyes, "Well _mate,_ I would like to solve this fucking case before other innocent people die, and this might be our only shot," he says with an angry tilt to his voice.

Harry looks a bit taken aback by his bluntness, but quickly tames his face into a neutral expression.

"Let's get this over with," he mumbles.

They get out of the car with one hand on their guns, quietly shutting the doors. From there, Harry leads the path towards the warehouse with Zayn on his heels. Harry had given Zayn the walkie talkie, which is secured on his holster. Hopefully they won't need to use it.

The front door of the building is already cracked open, and they squeeze in through the space, being very careful about the noise they were making. Inside, there was nothing other than a broken table laid on the floor. The windows were grimy with spiders webs strung in every corner of the room. It looked like no one had stepped foot in here for years, but maybe the killer wanted it to appear that way. There was a huge wooden beam dangling off the ceiling, big enough to crush Zayn's whole body. Both of them steered clear from that corner and turned into the small hallway connected to the front room. There was nothing to their right, but there were 3 doors leading down the path to the left. 

They slowly made their way to the first door with their guns in hand, but there was nothing inside but the roof's decay caved in on itself. No one would have survived there. Right across from that, the other room was empty too. The only difference was that the floor was broken in many different parts. Both of them calculated their steps a bit more cautiously. 

The third door was at the end of the hallway, a bit out of sight. They started walking towards it when Zayn felt it.

_Creak_

The floorboards under Zayn's feet had broken and his leg had fallen in. He let out a scream as his body started to sink.

"Zayn!!" Harry yelled and quickly grabbed him by the forearms to stop him from going under. 

Zayn had latched onto the edge of the floor to help Harry keep him up but that broke off too. He shrieks as his body was about to go tumbling full speed to the bottom but Harry hurriedly grabbed his hand. That was the only thing saving him from death or a nastly concussion and a few broken bones. He looked down but wasn't able to see the floor under him, meaning it was a _long_ way down.

"Give me your other hand," Harry pants.

Zayn lifts up his other arm and latches onto both of Harry's hands. 

"Okay I'm going to grab you but I need you to hold onto my shoulders," Harry says out of breath. Both of them were internally panicking but didn't act on that. He wanted to get out of this alive, and giving into that panic would not help his chances. 

Harry leaned forward and Zayn grabbed his shoulders instead of his hands. This caused him to slip a little as Harry grabbed him by the torso.

"Nghhh," Zayn struggled. Harry huffed for a second before pulling as hard as he could. Zayn went tumbling now that he was out and landed on his front next to Harry, who was sprawled on his back. Both of them spent a few seconds getting their breaths back.

Harry reached out a hand to out on Zayn's shoulder, dusting away the dirt, "Are you alright?" He asked while he stood up.

Zayn faintly nodded. Now was not the time to back out. They might have lost the element of surprise, but there still might be something here and Zayn wasn't about to let a mishap deter him.

He got back up and examined his hands, "come on, there's still places we have to check out."

Harry winced when he saw Zayn pull out a nastly splinter, a bit of blood flowing out of the wound.

"Look Zayn, I think we should head back. This isn't a safe place and you almost _died_ ," he stresses.

Zayn shaked his head and looked at Harry, "That's an exaggeration, I wouldn't have died, and there's something here I just _know_."

Harry crossed his arms, "If someone was here, they would've heard our screaming and probably left already!" He says in a furious whisper, "Something about this place doesn't sit right with me so let's _go._ "

"If you want to leave, be my guest."

Harry let out a frustrated sigh, "Do you ever give up?"

"Not until I get my way," Zayn smirked lightly, "You can't deny that something's wrong here. Are you really going to let me almost die for nothing?"

Harry's stance faltered a little and Zayn knew he'd won.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and lowered his head before muttering, "let's get this over with."

They both held up their guns again and proceeded to the last entry. They spun into the room to be met by a vast large space and something in the corner of the room.

A body. It was shaped like a dead body.

Both of them bolted to the corner on the far side but Harry's foot caught on something and the second he fell, they heard a crashing sound coming from right behind them. They whipped their heads around to be met with the sight of large wooden beams covering the doorway. 

It was a trap.

Zayn ran to the body while Harry inspected the blockage. Zayn gripped what appeared to be the shoulder of the person and turned it around to see that it was a scarecrow, not a human. It was all a setup. They are trapped.

"Dammit!" Harry exclaimed and slammed his hand on the beams. There was absolutely no way either of them could move them, even together. They were massive.

"It's not a body, it's a fucking scarecrow"

Harry scoffed, "Yeah and I didn't trip over thin air, there was fucking fishing line strung on the floor. This was a fucking setup and now we're stuck."

"Okay it's alright, we'll find a way out," Zayn tried to calm him down.

Harry set his gaze on him, radiating anger, "This was the fucking point Zayn! We were lured in here with a fake body and got stuck in a booby trap with no way out!"

"There's got to be some way out!"

"Unless you want to punch through a wall then we are stuck! Want me to spell it out? S-T-U-C-K!" Harry exclaimed.

"Stop shouting!"

Harry looked like he was about to yell a retort back but he took a deep breath instead.

"I told you, didn't I? I said we should turn around and leave but _no_ , you wouldn't listen," he said with a chillingly calm voice.

"We have to find a way out and that's not going to happen if we keep on fighting," Zayn pointed out.

"Wait," Harry suddenly said, "You brought the walkie talkie, just page someone for help."

After hearing that, Zayn stiffened, "No, I'm not calling for backup right now."

Harry drew his eyebrows together, "Why the hell not?"

"Because first of all, it's embarrassing," he listed, "Second, we will be in so much trouble if the Captain finds out."

Harry gave Zayn a deadpan look, "No fucking shit Sherlock, isn't that _why_ we brought the damn things, Incase we get in trouble?" He questions.

Zayn admits Harry's right, but they're not currently in a life threatening situation and he doesn't fancy getting yelled at by his superiors. The Captain would probably take them both off the case and Zayn never handles that well. He knows he brought the walkie incase of an emergency, but using it right now doesn't seem like a really great idea anymore.

"We're not dying though, let's see if we can get out of here first," he decided.

Harry turned away and shook his head, mumbling under his breath. Zayn ignored him bitching though and took a look at the room. The light was coming from a little window on the top corner of the room, but it was way too small to fit a human and had metal bars covering it. The beams blocking the doorway were obviously too heavy to move, and there were no areas to slip out of. The walls were not thin, and they couldn't exactly punch their way out of them. The only thing really left to do was to call for help, but Zayn was too stubborn to use it. Maybe time would help them escape.

  
  
  


20 minutes later, they were still at a hypothetical dead end. Harry had bagged up the fishing line in an evidence bag, and they had gotten the scarecrow outside of the room by squeezing it through the small window. it would be much easier to collect it from the outside after they get out of here. Harry had now turned to kicking the beams while spinning around the room, trying to find something while Zayn had relocated to the floor, observing everything and hoping to get a metaphorical light bulb. He was startled out of his head when he heard Harry curse.

"Fuck!!" He grabbed onto his foot from where Zayn assumed he stubbed his toe.

"Kicking the beams won't make them move, Styles" he drawled, wrapping his jacket tighter around himself. It was getting kind of chilly in here.

Harry threw up his arms, "Feel free to pitch forward any ideas, _Malik"_ he mocks.

He must've taken Zayn's silence as a no because Harry started walking towards him, making Zayn go wide eyed.

"What are you doing?" Zayn asked.

"Give me the radio, I'm calling for help."

The second the words left Harry's mouth, Zayn got off the floor and went across the room from Harry.

"No, I'm not calling for help"

Harry arched an eyebrow, "I'm not wasting the rest of the day here, give me it."

"No"

"Come on Malik, stop acting like a child."

Zayn shook his head again. Before he could come up with another excuse, Harry ran to him knocking him gently to the floor.

Zayn struggled under his grip, trying to get a hold of the walkie talkie, but his efforts were naught, because Harry stood up with a noise of triumph, the radio clutched in his hand.

Harry went to the other side of the room and was about to talk into the mic, but Zayn kept on interrupting him. Rationally, he knew Harry probably had a point but he really didn't want to get in trouble right now, especially since he broke protocol a lot in his last case with Louis.

"When the Captain finds out, you're taking the blame," Zayn said.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, whatever."

He pressed the side of the walkie talkie a couple times to make sure it was actually working before lifting it to his mouth, "Dispatch, this is Detective Styles, we're in a bit of a predicament and need backup the warehouse on 4th avenue, Piccadilly street, bring the fire department as well," he states.

Zayn internally groaned. They need help from the fire department to get them out of here, but Louis and Zayn had gotten into a fight with the chief of the department in the last case. This would be rather embarrassing, and he knows they're going to make fun of him for this. Last time this happened, Louis almost got suspended for decking one of the guys who made fun of his sister. Zayn was with him on that one, but let's just say it was rather humiliating getting yelled at in front of the entire precinct.

"They're sending help, should be about 15 minutes," Harry informs him.

"You're about to experience the embarrassment of getting rescued by the fire department," Zayn says, elaborating after noticing the confusion on Harry's face, "They're a bunch of dickheads."

Harry snorts while taking a seat on the floor, Zayn joining him.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Harry says, not unkindly.

Zayn tilts his head, "What does that mean?"

"You're rather guarded, I've noticed. You seem to assume the worst of someone before even meeting them, but not in an asshole-ish way," he describes poorly.

Zayn frowns. He knows what he's saying is right. Hell, he assumed the worst of Harry too before meeting him. He's just a little surprised Harry noticed that detail. As a detective, Zayn is usually the one looking into other people, not having someone do that to him. Even when he meets someone new, no one has mentioned this, or even cared really. They assume He wonders why Harry picks up on these quirks, and why he brought it up to Zayn.

"Why do you care?" Zayn asks.

Harry shrugged, "Not sure, but I do notice a lot of things about my friends."

"I've known you for 2 days, we're not friends."

"Yet," Harry points out.

Zayn shakes his head and leaves it at that, letting Harry do the rest of the talking while they wait for help. Random information about Harry he never asked about, but found himself listening intently to. 

He learns that he has a sister named Gemma, whom he's really close with. He learns about his Mum, Anne, his stepdad Robin, and biological dad, Des. Even though his mom had gotten a divorce, their family had stayed quite close. Harry also talked a bit about Niall, and what he would do if he were here. He learns Niall is a kind-hearted dude who is literally friends with everyone. Now that he thinks about it, Zayn can recall Liam mentioning Niall once, a couple months back.

Harry was in the middle of a story about how he had accidentally crashed a guitar at Niall's school when they heard loud footsteps near the front of the warehouse and a loud crash.

"Look like they're here," Zayn says.

Harry nods and both of them stand up again, moving closer to the doorway.

Harry cups his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice, "We're in here!" He calls out.

The steps get louder, "Are you behind the beams, Sir?!" Someone who sounds like a cop calls back.

"Yeah! Get the fire department to move them out of the way!" Zayn instructs.

"Clear away from the doorway!" Someone screams. Just from the voice, Zayn instantly knows it's the Chief, Ben Winston. He rolls his eyes at the tone of his voice but listens anyway. Getting demolished by wood is not on his agenda.

Once they move away, there's a sudden banging occuring at the door. It continues this way for a second before the beams come crashing down, and the firefighters drop the ladder they had used to knock them down. 

"Got yourself in some trouble, I see," Ben says, "Who's this? A new member in your Scooby Doo club? " Ben asks, laughing at his own joke and pointing to Harry.

Zayn clenches his jaw at the insult, "This is Detective Styles, from London Homicide. He's here for an investigation."

Harry-like the gentleman he is- gives Winston a polite smile and reaches forward to shake his hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Harry Styles."

Ben shaked his hand and snickers, "So you can't even solve a case by yourself, Malik?"

Zayn was about to reply with a daddy quip himself but Harry beats him.

"I'm sure Zayn is a very capable detective, but unfortunately his partner was unavailable so I stepped in," he says with a bite underlining his kind tone.

Ben looks unimpressed, "Uh huh, well you're not supposed to be in here, it's not marked as a structurally safe building."

Zayn rolls his eyes again, "No really, we had _no idea,_ Winston," he splits with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Ben fakes offence, "Why the sour face, dear Zayn?"

"Shut the fuck up and be lucky you actually got some action in your unit, you lot are always sitting on your asses," Zayn sneers.

Ben's face turns angry at that, "Listen Malik, I could report you for trespassing on private property, maybe that will tea-"

"Let's just get out of here and we can resolve this issue with the Captain _ourselves_ ," Harry intervenes a little loudly.

Zayn huffs, but chooses to pick his fights and nudges past Ben out of the door, Harry right behind him. He heard Ben chuckle, but he's not sure what for.

Not looking where he's going, Zayn realises he was about to walk right over the giant hole in the floor. He loses his balance, and is about to tumble into it when Harry grabs his arm and pulls him back. This wasn't the hallway where Zayn had fallen into, and wasn't deep enough to be fatal. It must've been the crash they heard.

"You should really watch where you're going," Harry teases.

Zayn breathes out a laugh before turning to Ben, who was chuckling at his almost fall.

"Do you wanna maybe get us out of here," he says impatiently.

Ben walks forward and lays down the ladder across the hole, proceeding to crawl across the open floor on top. Once he makes it to the other end, he turns around and holds the ladder to the floor, motioning for Zayn and Harry to go. They both crawl one by one and make sure they have everything in their belts before heading out of the building.

Harry walked over to the police car which had 3 cops standing around it.

"I'm going to need forensics to come collect a scarecrow around the back of the warehouse, it's for our current investigation," he states, "Payne should know what to do."

Zayn furrowed his eyebrows, "You know Liam?"

Harry nodded, "We used to live next to each other in highschool and decided to go into the force together."

That was news. Liam never told him he knew Harry.

"We should head back to the precinct before we get called in," Zayn says.

"Yeah let's go," Harry grabs his car keys and walks towards the River, climbing into the driver's seat quickly.

The drive back is a little tense, both of them a bit nervous about seeing the Captain. Zayn admits that he feels a bit bad about dragging Harry into this, but he can't really do anything about that now. He just crosses his fingers and hopes Higgins isn't in a bad mood today.

They go into the building and ride the elevator up, Zayn taking a deep breath a second before the doors open. It's a good thing he did, because their Captain was standing right in front of the lift, and from the looks of his face, he was not happy.

  
  


"Gentleman, my office, _now,"_ He demands before turning around and marching right back.

Harry looks to Zayn and nudges him to go first, giving a look that says 'this is your fault'.

They both slowly go towards the office, Harry's posture staying strong while Zayn slouches slightly.

"Shut the door please," Paul requests before standing in front of his desk.

"I cannot believe you went behind my back for your investigation," he says sternly, "That place could have had your killer and looks like it's about to collapse in a second! You would've gotten yourself killed!"

Zayn winced.

The Captain then turned to Zayn, "Not to mention the fact that you went and dragged Styles into your plans. I expect this type of stuff from you and Tomlinson, but you don't have to corrupt someone who's sent down here to _help_ you!"

Zayn looks up at that, "All due respect sir, but I don't always need help."

Paul shakes his head, "That's not my point. My point is that you go and do your own thing without consulting me first! You landed yourself in trouble because of this, didn't you?"

"Yes sir."

He then looks at Harry, "And Styles, I may not be your Captain, but I still expected better from you," he says, "I'm not going to take either of you off this case because I need my best detectives on it, but I don't want a repeat of this situation."

Both of them nod in understanding.

"Now get out of here and solve the case."

Not wasting another second, they leave and take a seat at Zayn's desk.

Harry blows out his breath, "Thank god that's over," he sighs, "Way to get me on his bad side."

"You'll be fine, he doesn't exactly hold grudges."

Harry hums, "Any idea when we'll get those forensic reports?"

Zayn shakes his head, "I have no idea, though I think Liam will try and get it done quickly."

"Alright well what does this mean?"

Zayn looks at Harry, "It means, our killer is smarter than we thought."

Harry scoffs, "That's an understatement, he knew we were going to ask around the market, he knew we would go against Captain to check out the warehouse, and he set us up with booby traps and a fake body. 

Zayn raises an eyebrow, "I thought we already figured that out."

Harry has a dark look in his eyes as he opens his mouth, "It means that he knew you would check the building out even though we aren't allowed. Higgins said it, you and Louis have a knack for not following rules.It _means_ , Zayn, that he knows you and how you work."

Zayn's face goes slack, "So you think I've met him, or her, before."

"Yes," Harry confirms.

Zayn rubs his face, "Jesus Christ, I hope we catch him before someone else dies."

They both go back to the murder board and add all this to it, going back to the files, trying to find a plothole they might've missed.

Harry is currently in the restroom, and Zayn takes this time to think to himself. This person knows how Zayn is at work, and they put a lot of thought into the murders. So far, they are times 5 days apart and exactly the same. This confuses him a bit. Usually with a serial killer, the first victim is sloppier and a pattern develops over 3 or more murders. But for this one, it was organised right off the bat, and has kept that pattern over the 2 victims.

He hears Harry's voice which distracts him.

"I'm sorry Steve, I didn't see you there," Harry apologies to someone. When he comes back to the desk, Zayn looks up at him.

"Who the fuck is Steve?" He asks.

Harry frowns, "He's your janitor."

Realization dawns on him. They had gotten some new staff, the janitor being one of them and Zayn hadn't really gotten the time to make much conversation with him.

"Whatever, I think we should go home now, it's getting late," Zayn says looking at the time, it's around 7 in the evening.

Harry nods and packs up his things with Zayn both of them saying goodbye and heading their separate ways. Louis is still at the precinct, and both of them have been terribly busy the last few days, so they haven't had much time to chitchat. Zayn goes over to him and sits on the edge of his desk.

"Any progress on the bust?" Zayn asks.

Louis leans back in his chair, "Yeah we're getting somewhere, but we don't have enough evidence to actually arrest anyone yet."

Zayn clucks in sympathy. It's always infuriating knowing who they have to catch, but not having any proof to bring them in.

"Heard you got a proper scolding from the Captain though," Louis laughs.

"Yeah, though we did get some new information. Turns out our guy knows me."

Louis frowns, "Be careful, Zayn," he warns.

He nods in understanding, but Zayn isn't really scared. It comes with the job, he supposed.

He notices Louis staring at the side of his face. "What?" He asks.

"You and Styles over there seem buddy buddy."

"We're working together on the case, he's not bad company," Zayn says defensively.

Louis raised an eyebrow, "Mate, you hate working with other people you don't know."

"That's 'cause all of them are usually assholes!"

"Uh huh, sure mate."

Zayn kicks his leg, "Shut the hell up and give me a ride home."

Louis grabs his things and stands up, "Why do you need a ride?"

Running the back of his neck, Zayn responds, "Harry gave me a ride in the morning."

Louis widens his eyes slightly, "Are you replacing me as your best friend?!" He questions dramatically.

Zayn chuckles and throws his arm over Louis' shoulder, "You _are_ awful, bro."

Louis glares at him but then smiles again.

"Really though, I'm glad you've made a friend," he ignores Zayns mutter of _he's not my friend_ and continues, "You haven't really been very open to new people since Luke, it's nice."

Zayn freezes at the mention of Luke, still being a little sensitive to the topic even though it's been a good few months.

"I don't want to talk about it," he says flatly.

Louis gently nods and rests his arm on Zayn's shoulders too, both of them quietly making their way out to the parking lot.

As they're driving, Louis speaks up again, "Did Harry get into a lot of trouble with the Captain today?"

"Um not really no, he was mostly pissed at me, why?" He asks, a little confused.

"No reason, I had a feeling he wasn't going to grill Styles much, with his rank and all."

Now Zayns is even more confused. Harry's the same rank as himself, so why would Louis say that?

"What are you talking about, Harry's in the same rank as us."

Louis slowly shakes his head, glancing at Zayn, "No mate, I mean technically he is, but he's lead detective back in London because they don't have Captains there," he explains, "He's also won like 8 awards."

It made sense. Liam knew who he was, Harry hadn't gotten into much trouble, and that's why he had been so stricken about going to the warehouse. It's also confusing as to why Harry would want to shift from London to here if he was in such a good position already. 

"How was I supposed to know?"

Louis shrugged, "I thought Liam had told you about him, being childhood friends and all."

Now that he thinks back, Zayn can recall Liam talking about his old neighbours he used to be friends with. Zayn just didn't realise that was _Harry_. Small work huh?

\---

Zayn takes his sweet time getting ready for bed, even going through the effort of hanging up his clothes instead of throwing them on the floor. It was a bit early, around 7:40pm, but it the 4th night since the last murder, and while Zayn hopes there won't be another one, he has an inkling he should get some sleep while he can.

As he slips into his bed, he thinks about Harry. Back in the room where they were stuck, he had said they were friends and Zayn was quick to deny that. Now though, Zayn thinks they are already friends and he just never realised. Harry has a way of creeping up on you, he's noticed. It also doesn't help the fact that Zayn's kind of interested in him. A part of him thinks he didn't want friendship because this was the first time since his breakup Zayn has wanted to get with someone, and not just to get laid. 

He's still scared, but won't admit it to anyone, except maybe Louis. Luke wasn't Zayn's first failed relationship. It seems he's not able to keep a steady boyfriend for the life of him, and that's why he's not too keen on his feelings towards Harry.

Making up his mind, he decides to ignore all of and focus on the case, and hopefully these thoughts will be gone by then. With that, Zayn drifts off to sleep, still a bit on edge for some reason.

The unease is later revealed though, when Zayn gets a call around 3:30am, saying they've found another body.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? Leave ur honest thoughts if you'd like. I also have some Brooklyn 99 references in there because that's my only knowledge of detectives lol.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiii! I'm back and I'm SO SORRY for taking this long to update. I honestly have no excuse besides the fact that I just didn't know what to write. I promise I HAVE NOT abandoned this fic and I will complete it, just bare with my awful update schedule. Anyways ENJOY

The road was crawling with people; officers, detectives, forensics. There were no witnesses on sight, or any buildings around they could go to for questioning. The abandoned road held nothing but dead grass and dirt, and Zayn thinks the body wouldn't have been found by anyone if it weren't for the patrol officers. 

The body had already been identified by one of the cops who was working on a missing persons case. 

Amber Smith, 14 years old, female. She was killed by what looks like the same method their killer has previously been using. A clown nose was sitting on her nose, taunting Harry and Zayn, mocking them. There was a blue and red striped scarf tied around her neck as predicted.

Her parents had reported her missing 2 days ago, around 6am. She was at a sleepover with her friends on a school night, so her mother asked her to come home earlier in the morning. Amber's friend said she didn't wanna wake up her parents so Amber left on her bicycle but never made it back. Her parents had called the police and the investigation has been open since.

It boggles Zayn how different the ages of all these victims are, going from 26 to 14. There was no gender disqualification either, and it wasn't a matter of race because Amber has a hispanic background. The killer was incredibly heartless to kill a girl so young, barely into her teen years.

Harry's shining his flashlight left and right, trying to find any tracks or any pieces of evidence left behind, but judging by the looks on his face, Zayn can tell there's nothing.The press have also caught wind of the now confirmed serial killer since the crime scene was closer to the population. There's news reporters lined up a bit further back, trying to push through the caution tape a frantic cop is trying to hold them back. 

Zayn despises the press during investigations, they're so bloody invasive. Especially Grimshaw, he likes to taunt Zayn and do everything possible to get on his nerves, the prick. 

Harry makes his way back to Zayn and shakes out his hair.

"Didn't find anything," he sighs, "expected that though."

"I'm going to head back to the precinct, don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep," Zayn announces.

Harry gives him an empathetic look, relating to the struggle.

"Alright, I think I'll head back home for a few hours and join you in the morning," he says.

Zayn nods, "Goodnight."

" 'night."

Turning back to the parking lot, Zayn quickly walks to his car, climbing in. His brain is running a mile a minute, and there's something so familiar about all these cases he just can't pinpoint. It's on the tip of his tongue, and he thinks looking back at all the evidence will put the pieces together. 

His thought process is disturbed by a bright light flashing, and looking up he realizes that it's one of the reporters taking pictures of him.

"Son of a bitch!" Zayn slaps his hand on the steering wheel in anger, this close to flipping them off. The press are like mosquitoes, never leaving him without taking something back.

Aggressively honking, Zayn hurriedly steers out of the lot and heads into the direction, trying to clear his head.

\---

It's been hours. 3 hours to be precise. The forensic reports came in quickly since this was now a priority case, not that they were helpful, stating the information everyone had already inferred. There was a slight difference this time though. The stab wounds were much more sloppy and aggressive, and the number of stabs were also increased. That means their killer is getting violent.

This isn't the first time a serial killer has gotten more violent during their spree, but it also means the murders could be doubled and more savage like. 

That's always the most dangerous stage.

He was back standing in front of the board, waiting for Harry to come in. It was only a bit after 8 but he had texted Zayn telling him he was gonna come early. He's Zayn's only hope at this point because he hasn't figured out anything by himself yet. It's like an itch under his skin that he can't reach, slipping out of his grasps and flowing away with the rest of his thoughts, aggravating and taunting him.

The creak of a door signals Harry's arrival, making Zayn turn his head.

"Hey," he greets dully.

Harry gives a half smile, "Hi, I'm a little early. Couldn't sleep."

"I'm kind of glad you're here," he starts, "my brain is the equivalent of fried right now so some company sounds great."

Harry gives a dry chuckle at that before his face turns serious again. Putting his hands in his pocket, he walks up to the board with the piles of files littered on the desk under it, shuffling through a few. 

"Anything interesting?"

Zayn shrugs, "sorta, the forensics said there are multiple wounds this time, and they're more vicious and messy than the last 2 murders. Same method but more violent."

Harry frowns, "that doesn't sound good," he says.

Zayn picks up the file, "That's because it's not, look at the pictures, it's like he is getting more angry."

"We should start going through all the security footage, Olivia said it's here."

"Ok, I'm just gonna go grab my laptop."

Harry nods and goes back to looking at the pictures in the file. Maybe he gets a stroke of luck Zayn is lacking.

\---

Both Harry and Zayn were interrupted from the Captain's voice.

"Malik, Styles, you're going to have to go home for the rest of the day," he announces.

Zayn quickly stands up, "What do you mean?"

The Captain sighs, "There's been a gas leak on this floor, extremely heavy too," he explains, "The workers said it's not safe for people to be in the building during the repair so you have to go home for the rest of the day and work from there."

Upon hearing this, Zayn has to physically restrain himself from bashing his head on the desk, and a glance towards Harry suggests He's thinking the same thing. As if the day couldn't get worse, he can't even work in peace. 

"We'll leave then," he says trying to keep the bite out of his voice. It's not exactly Paul's fault.

Harry makes a noise agreeing, and they start packing up the things. While Zayn is trying to shove his laptop inside his bag, he sees Harry taking pictures of files and the murder board.

"What're you doing?" He questions.

Harry takes one last picture and pockets his phone before turning to Zayn, "We can't take everything here home, so might as well get some photos."

That- actually makes a lot of sense, "Minding sending those my way?"

"Course," Harry smiles.

They languidly make their way outside, bantering back and forth. Zayn realises conversation flows much easier between them now versus a week ago. Almost like a friend like. Back at the warehouse while they were trapped, Zayn had denied being friends, and was slightly shocked when Harry had followed that up with 'yet'. Now though, he thinks Harry was right. They are friends. 

Sure Zayn doesn't know every little quirk of Harry and they haven't hung out much outside of work, but he knows how he takes his tea, where he lives, who his best friend is, and what his favorite Chinese takeout place is. He also knows that Harry's a romantic, always open to relationships; a thought that is always sitting in the back of Zayn's mind. 

He himself had kinda lost hope for his love life after Luke, but it's nice to see someone else so optimistic about finding their 'soulmate'. His sister always used to make fun of him when he was doing his first year of Uni, dating any guy who gave him a chance. It was a little pathetic if you ask Zayn. 

A couple days ago, he told himself not to get involved with Harry, not wanting to nurse a broken heart once again, but it's becoming exceedingly more difficult with every day going by and the more time he spends with Harry. He tries to relax himself though, since Harry doesn't seem the heartbreaker type.

Maybe Zayn's saying that to lure himself into a false sense of security, but either way, it's more baggage to add alongside the case. 

He really hopes they catch the damn killer.

\---

It's getting a little late in the evening, around 6. He had gotten a call from the Captain saying the precinct will also be closed for tomorrow, forcing them to stay home again. It's a really good thought that Harry had taken those pictures, or Zayn would have actually jumped off a roof. 

He's splayed across the living room floor, Netflix softly playing Grey's anatomy in the background. He had never gotten into the show but found it provides great background noise while working. He had printed copies of the pictures and lined them up along the coffee table in front of him, a notepad and a pen in his hand to write down anything that comes to mind. He can't explain it but Zayn has somehow come closer to figuring out the pattern to the killings. It's so close to him but he can't grasp it properly. 

In frustration he drops the notepad on the floor, and rests his head on the table, closing his eyes and groaning. His brain is getting cloudy, taking in all the information and trying to put it together. But he knows giving up won't get him anywhere.

Something is telling him to look more closely at the families of the victims, so he grabs the file and looks at the statements, before flipping to the family information.

Jessica was from a rich family to put it lightly. Her dad was an owner of one of the largest paper mill factories in New York, and her Mother was a retired real estate agent. All of the family records are clean with no scandals, which is somewhat surprising for a business owner. 

Carl Jones was in a similar position. He had gotten a degree in computer graphics from Oxford, and had moved back to Manchester where he started his job. His parents are owners of a charity home, with an uprise 2 years ago which led them to making a couple million dollars in 2017. His brother is a doctor, currently working at the local hospital and his sisters are also out studying at Oxford. Again, no criminal backgrounds.

Amber, their newest victim, and youngest has a likewise position. Only 14, she was studying at a private school with her brother and older sister. Her parents are on the board of Manchester University. They also own a building in Beverly Hills of all places, which is a bit weird but Zayn puts that aside for now. 

And then it clicks.

These victims have perfect parents from the looks of it, but they all seem to have some shady moments.

Not wanting to give himself false hope, Zayn quickly goes into the records sorted in their database.

He almost shouts in glee once he finds what he was looking for.

Jessica's father did have a criminal record but he paid it off to have it private. He had been stealing from recycling companies to make his paper mill business increase, but the authorities had caught wind of it. They had to pay off the debt and rebuild in a new area, but they had already made millions of dollars so their financial income hadn't been affected.

Carl's parents don't have a criminal record but they do have a court case built up on them. The charity home they have is set up for foster kids as well, and there have been allegations that the Jones family was abusing their rights for the kids and making profit off donations. Later on, they had been proven innocent in the court due to lack of evidence but anybody could tell they were in the wrong. 

Amber's parents had voted against LGBTQ rights inside the university and had started a campaign too, but once they saw how many people were protesting, they paid the administer hush money and continued on like that never happened. As for their property in Beverly Hills, they had cheated their way into that. An elderly man had been residing in the property from 40 years ago, when the price of the land was not expensive. They had bamboozled the man into giving up the property for less than 20 times its worth. Legally, the man had signed all the contracts so they can't get in trouble for it, but they were in the wrong.

Their killer is targeting picture perfect families with shady backgrounds.

He's found the motive.

Zayn quickly jumps up and runs to call Harry, wanting to inform him as quickly as possible, but it's going straight to voicemail. Of course the one time he wants to call Harry, his phone is dead. But Zayn considers this as a breakthrough in the case, so he takes the papers and his laptop, grabs his keys, and runs out the door, quickly putting in Harry's address he had given him in case of emergencies. He wouldn't consider this as an emergency but he needs to let Harry know.

\---

The apartment building looked similar to Zayns, except with more floors. He hoped Harry was home, or else he would be stuck outside looking like a creep. Zayn gives himself a mental slap for not bringing his badge and making life harder for him.

He walks up to the buzzer and punches in the code for Harry's flat, shuffling from foot to foot.

"Hello?," An unfamiliar voice crackles through the speaker. Zayn almost forgot Harry lives with his friend Niall.

"Hey, is this Niall?" He cautiously asks.

The voice seems a bit hesitant to answer, "Uh yeah, it is. Who is this?"

"It's Zayn, Malik, Harry's partner from work. Something really important for the case came up and he wasn't answering his phone."

Niall suddenly laughs, "Oh hey mate, come on in, it's the 12th floor."

Zayn breathes out a sigh of relief, "Thanks."

He quickly shuffles over to the elevator and clicks the 12th floor, watching himself in the elevator mirrors and adjusting his hair with one hand. He hadn't really fixed himself before leaving and is really regretting it now.

The doors dings open as he turns back around. He finds the door with the correct number and clears his throat quietly before knocking three times in quick succession. 

A man- who he assumed to be Niall- opens the door with a bright smile.

"Hi mate, come in," he motions with his hand, "I'm Niall, Harry's best friend and flatmate."

"Hey, m'Zayn," he walks inside and shuts the door, going to shake Niall's hand but gets pulled into a hug instead. A little surprised by the gesture, he awkwardly places his hands on his back.

Pulling back, he looks at Niall. He's pretty much exactly what the pictures Harry showed him of, but he can see the bright blue of his eyes that wasn't present in the picture. 

"Harry's in the shower right now, but I let him know you're here so he should be out in a bit," Niall explains.

Zayn gives him a smile as he takes off his shoes and follows him into the flat. It's spacious, bigger than Zayn's with floor length mirrors in the living room overlooking the city. There's a large L shaped couch with a TV across it. A couple of throw blankets are littered across the cushions, a touch Zayn thinks is 100% Harry. The kitchen is by the entrance across the living room, marble countertops glistening. A hallway behind the room must lead to the bedrooms, he guesses. 

Niall tells him to get comfortable, so he does. He puts down his things on the table in front of the couch and takes a seat, waiting for Harry to come out. Niall joins him after grabbing cups of tea and setting them down.

"So how's the case going?" He asks.

Zayn gives a small laugh, "That's actually why I'm here, I had a breakthrough and couldn't wait for the precinct to open up again."

Niall flashes him a winning smile, "Well that's great mate, hope you catch this bastard."

He was about to reply but got interrupted by fur brushing up against his legs. Slightly alarmed, he swings his legs to side and sees what it was, only to encounter a small ball of grey and white fluff staring up at him with adorable eyes. It let out a small meow and licked its paw, flopping back on the floor.

Harry never told him he has a cat.

Though Zayns is not even sure he can call it a cat since it's so tiny. He crouches down and gently picks up the kitten who comes willingly into his lap, curling up on his legs and crushing his tiny face into Zayn's stomach, purring when he starts scratching between its ears.

"I didn't know you had a cat," he says.

Niall scoffs, "that's 100%, he didn't tell me he was getting that thing. His name's Paul by the way."

Zayn smiles, "Well hello Paul, aren't you cute?"

"Feel honoured, he usually doesn't like meeting new people. Posh cat."

He laughs at that. He and Niall make countless small talk for a few more minutes before he heads a throat clearing from his right.

Harry's standing there in just a black t-shirt and matching sweatpants, but his hair is still wet, small water droplets travelling down his face. It makes Zayn swallow thickly, quickly averting his gaze to his eyes.

"Hey, sorry I didn't get your phone call."

That sobers him up a bit, "That's ok, I just had something really important about the case to tell you," he says, watching Harry walk around and take a seat on the same couch Zayn's sitting in.

Niall takes this as his cue to leave, bidding Zayn a quick bye. 

Suddenly feeling the same rush he felt when he figured this out, Zayn starts telling Harry everything.

"I figured out the patterns," he blurts out, "Our killer is targeting 'picture perfect families with scandalous pasts."

Harry frowned and picked up the files with the notes Zayn wrote, skimming over the connections made and face contorting into realisation.

"Oh my God. Shit your right," he exclaimed.

"That's why they're all different ages and that's why we couldn't find a pattern. Because he's not basing off the victims from their looks or morals, he's after the families," Zayn says.

Harry nods along, pinching his bottom lip with his pointer finger and thumb, "He knows they won't get charged legally so he's targeting the non guilty to ruin their lives."

Zayn hums in affirmation before dropping the file and sitting back with a 'there you go' motion, raising his eyebrows. 

"Ok so we know the motives, but we still don't know why he has an obsession with this clown thing," Harry huffs.

"Whoever they are, they're probably not mentally stable so it probably has some sort of a correlation with their past and the style."

Harry nods, "We should look up old records of closed cases related to the victims' and see if we can find targets on his 'kill list'," Harry moves his fingers in a quote motion.

Zayn agrees and they both get comfortable on the couch, putting their laptops on their legs. They work quietly for the most part, exchanging a few words when they find anything new. After a bit, Zayn feels fur crawl across his arm and looks down to see Paul staring up at him again, little tongue sticking out of his mouth. He smiles at the cat, thinking a break is in order and picks Paul up, letting him lick his fingers. He notices Harry lift his head up from the screen and smile at him and the kitten curled up together.

"He really likes you," Harry says, dimples popping in both cheeks.

"Why wouldn't he? Of Course he likes me," Zayn jokes, "You never told me you had a cat, by the way."

Harry winced, "Yeah sorry about that, I didn't know how to sneak that into conversation without sounding like a crazy cat lady."

"I think you're a bit past that, babe," Zayn didn't even realise he said that last part until looking up at Harry and seeing a slight blush appear on his face.

Harry clears his throat laughing a little and shaking his head before turning back to his computer, a smile staying on his lips.

Zayn gets up to get another glass of water from the kitchen, and notices Harry's phone on the table so he grabs it on his way back to give it to him. He's about to set it down when the phone vibrates in his hand, and Zayn doesn't have enough self control to stop himself from looking down. Turns out it was a message notification, but that's not what catches his eye. It who the text is from. 

"You know Nick Grimshaw?" Zayn asks in a scandalized tone, offended Harry's friends with that git.

Harry looks up and takes his phone out of Zayns outstretched hand, "yeah, we've been friends for a couple years."

Zayn plops down on the couch and scoffs, "Why must you make such stupid friends?"

"What's wrong with Nick?"

"He's the spawn of Satan in news reporter form."

"A little aggressive," he giggles, "but he's not that bad once you get to know him."

"Whatever," Zayn mumbles.

\---

The words on the papers were becoming a bit blurred, so Zayn stretched his hands out, yawning lightly. Harry had gotten up a few hours ago to make them sandwiches after their stomachs had started protesting about the lack of food and overdose of caffeine. Apparently Harry had made it his personal mission to make the best sandwiches in the world because they tasted straight out of a restaurant. 

One glance at his phone informed him it was 1:30 in the morning, much later than expected. The day's aggression has worn off, leaving them both exhausted and sleepy. He was dreading the drive home, knowing he hadn't put any sheets on his bed after doing laundry. The thought made him nauseous, if he's being honest.

It seems Harry noticed the time too, also letting out a yawn and closing up his laptop. Zayn was about to say he should head home before Harry spoke over him.

"It's really late, you should just crash here for the night," he offers.

The thought seems so tempting Zayn wants to deflate, but he's not sure if that's a good idea, sleeping at Harry's apartment. It gives off the feeling of being too attached and that thought scared the absolute shit out of him.

"I don't know, I wouldn't want to barge," he tries, but Harry's not having it.

"Of course not. I offered didn't I," he smiles, "Besides, you're way too tired to drive home this late."

Throwing all causion out the window, Zayn says fuck it and accepts the offer, not willing to put up a fight. His eyes are screaming in protest, and he doubts he'll be able to drive safely anyways. 

Harry shows him the guestroom and the bathroom down the hall, as well as pointing out his and Niall's room. Paul seemed to enjoy having Zayn staying over, since he has already set up camp on the bed.

Harry huffs, walking towards the kitten, "You have your own bed Paul, stop bothering Zayn."

The creature just lets out small meows, covering his face with his paws and scrunching up his nose adorably.

"I don't mind if he stays here," Zayn says, "Doesn't seem like the bed hog type."

Harry laughs, "If you're sure."

"I am."

Harry nods, "Feel free to grab anything from the kitchen, Oh and I'll just go grab some clothes for you to sleep in."

"Thanks," Zayn says, watching Harry's retreating figure.

He takes a seat on the bed, lifting the small fur ball and placing him in his lap. Paul purrs, softly rubbing his face on Zayn's shirt, which makes him smile.

"Here you are," Harry comes back, holding a black tee shirt and some sweats.

"Thanks again," Zayn says.

"No problem, Goodnight Zayn."

Zayn smiles, " 'Night Harry." 

He picks up the shirt, which is definitely Harry's, since it's a little too big to be Nialls. He guesses the pants are Nialls, because he's not drowning in them, they're just slightly saggy as he changes into them.

He's getting really tired now, eyes drooping down, so he quickly makes himself comfortable, setting down Paul on the other side of the bed, and climbing in the covers, which are slightly cold. He's out like a light in a couple seconds after his head hits the pillow, dreams consisting of a certain curly headed lad.

\---

Zayn woke up to something rubbing against his face, tickling his neck and itching his nose. After gaining a bit of consciousness and deciding it's not in fact a giant tarantula that's out to get him, he relaxes a bit, opening his eyes to meet Paul's small round ones. He's made himself at home, purring and curling up under his chin, paw resting softly on Zayn's jaw. The kitten nuzzles into his neck, yawning but overall unbothered, already drifting off to sleep.

This makes Zayn want to get one of these himself but knows he doesn't have time for that kind of responsibility. It wouldn't be fair to either one of em, especially in this line of job. 

The time reads 4:17 in the morning, way too early to be even thinking about being awake, but his throat is parched, begging for some water. So he gently lifts Paul and places him on the bed, shushing him when he whines and quietly makes his way outside to the kitchen. Harry had told him where the glasses were, so he opened the correct cabinet and poured himself a cup of water, slurping it down like he hasn't drank in days.

Zayn turns around, about to go back to his room and sleep like the dead but has a heart attack when he sees another silhouette in the shadows of the dimly lit room. He's man enough to admit he lets out a rather girly squeal, but quickly calms his thrashing heart once the shadow comes into light and is just a very shirtless Harry.

"Holy shit, you scared the fuck out of me," Zayn breathes with a hand on his chest. 

Harry smiles sheepishly, "Sorry, didn't know anyone was in here," he apologizes, "What are you doing awake anyway?"

"Paul woke me up, but I was really thirsty so got some water," he explains, "What about you?"

"Woke up to go to the bathroom but wanted some peach juice really bad."

Zayn made a face, " That's weird. Why do u drink such atrocious liquids?"

Zayn realised his mistake in his wording once he saw the smirk on Harry's face, "You can provide me with other liquids, baby."

Zayn rolls his eyes, pretending to not be affected by the words, "Don't be crude."

Harry laughs, reaching over Zayn to grab a glass, bare arms brushing against him. Goosebumps erupt over Zayn's arm from the small point of contact. 

Harry eventually leaves the kitchen with his glass of peach juice, tossing a gentle, 'bye' over his shoulder and leaving Zayn in the kitchen to tend to his thoughts.

Their interactions are becoming increasingly more flirty, and he's not sure how to feel about it. It's been so long since he's fancied someone, and he's not sure how to feel about it. Getting hurt isn't something on Zayn's bucket list at the moment. But on the other hand, Harry is so nice, kind, respectful, and overall just perfect. If he was more courageous, Zayn knows he probably would've asked Harry out already. But now he thinks of every possible thing that could go wrong with that plan. Rejection, Harry seeing someone else, or even getting laughed at. That last one seems the worst.

He walks back to his room, curling up under the covers with Paul coming to cuddle with him again, but now he can't fall asleep, these thoughts stuck on his mind. So Naturally, Zayn does what anyone would do if they fancy someone. He stalks Harry on facebook.

It's easy to find him, Harry's beaming smile set as his profile picture. Scrolling down a bit, Zayn notices he does post stuff from time to time, some recently, but overall he's not that active on here. His status does thankfully say 'Single'. He's not why he was worried about that because Harry had told him he doesn't have a boyfriend. The last post was a picture of Paul, somehow even smaller than he already is. He has his tongue sticking out his mouth and Zayn barely contains his coos, opting to cuddle closer to the cat question. 

A bit further down, he sees a picture of a guy who has his hands entwined around Harry's neck. Harry's are wrapped around the man's waist, and they're both wearing matching smiles, about to kiss. The man has soft blonde hair and is shorter than Harry. The picture is dated about 6 months ago, with the caption, "Love you, darling ❤️ @MalcolmSanders." It makes Zayn's stomach drop a little, but it's obvious the guy is just an ex. If he didn't know any better, Zayn would think they're married. They just give off that vibe. 

Curiosity runs through him, and he has an urge to ask why they broke up, how long they had been dating for, or if either of them had cheated. Obviously he's not going to, because he's not an intrusive piece of shit. But he wants to ask Harry why they broke up. Especially after his revelation tonight.

Zayn wants to ask Harry out after this case is over.

He's decided that. He's done denying himself things he deserves, and it's about time he moves on from Luke. Zayns is also pretty sure Harry has some sort of feelings for him, due to the flirting and the looks he's been giving him lately. 

But he doesn't want this to interfere with their case. It's the priority right now, and he'll be damned if he lets his love life come before this case. That's just not how it works. Peoples lives are on the line here, so he puts away these thoughts to the back of his mind, and goes back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is about to get SPICY

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!! Any suggestions would be helpful too! Expect another chapter by next week.


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